Top 500 John F. Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “If we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capcity for thought, for work, and for use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America.”

— John F. Kennedy

452. “While much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity-for the average woman worker earns only 60 percent of the average wage for men-this legislation is a significant step forward.”

— John F. Kennedy

453. “The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.”

— John F. Kennedy

454. “The United States of America has no intention of finishing second in space. This effort is expensive-but it pays its way for freedom and for America.”

— John F. Kennedy

455. “I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to this great constitutional principle which is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the principle of religious independence, of religious liberty, of religious freedom.”

— John F. Kennedy

456. “We hold the view that the people make the best judgment in the long run.”

— John F. Kennedy

457. “I see little more important to the future of our country and our civilization than the full recognition of the place of the artist.”

— John F. Kennedy

458. “Our responsibility is one of decision, for to govern is to choose.”

— John F. Kennedy

459. “At the start of 2005 the idea of downloading a song to a mobile phone was an idea, by the end of the year it was a reality.”

— John F. Kennedy

460. “In a world of danger and trial, peace is our deepest aspiration.”

— John F. Kennedy

461. “Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. There are new and more terrible weapons – new and uncertain nations – new pressures of population and deprivation.”

— John F. Kennedy

462. “One of the best ways to expand his horizon is through a regular reading program.”

— John F. Kennedy

463. “Let us not seek the Republican answer.”

— John F. Kennedy

464. “No sane society chooses to commit national suicide.”

— John F. Kennedy

465. “Irrational barriers and ancient prejudices fall quickly when the question of survival itself is at stake.”

— John F. Kennedy

466. “I am flatly opposed to appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican. Whatever advantages it might have in Rome – and I’m not convinced of these – they would be more than offset by the divisive effect at home.”

— John F. Kennedy

467. “I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me.”

— John F. Kennedy

468. “A Canadian newspaperman said yesterday that this is the President’s “Easter egghead roll on the White House lawn.” I want to deny that!”

— John F. Kennedy

469. “We must create world-wide law and law enforcement as we outlaw world-wide war and weapon.”

— John F. Kennedy

470. “While we shall never weary in the defense of freedom, neither shall we ever abandon the pursuit of peace.”

— John F. Kennedy

471. “Peaceful circulation has been interupted by barbed wire and concrete blocks. For a city or a people to be truly free, they must have the secure right, without economic, political or police pressure, to make their own choices and live their own lives.”

— John F. Kennedy

472. “Football today is far too much a sport for the few who can play it well; the rest of us, and too many of our children, get out exercise from climbing up the seats in stadiums, or from walking across the room to turn on our television sets.”

— John F. Kennedy

473. “I do not belive that Washington should do for the people wha they can do for themselves through local and private effort.”

— John F. Kennedy

474. “Will Rogers once said it is not the original investment in a Congressman that counts; it is the upkeep.”

— John F. Kennedy

475. “It is no contradiction – the most important single thing we can do to stimulate investment in today’s economy is to raise consumption by major reduction ofindividualincometaxrates.”

— John F. Kennedy

476. “I suppose if you could have only one thing, it would be that-energy. Without it, you haven’t got a thing.”

— John F. Kennedy

477. “Self-government requires qualities of self-denial and restraint.”

— John F. Kennedy

478. “I don’t think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.”

— John F. Kennedy

479. “Disarmament without checks is but a shadow – and a community without law is but a shell.”

— John F. Kennedy

480. “No man who enters upon the office to which I have succeeded can fail to recognize how every president of the United States has placed special reliance upon his faith in God.”

— John F. Kennedy

481. “A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.”

— John F. Kennedy

482. “I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.”

— John F. Kennedy

483. “It is true that my predecessor did not object, as I do, to pictures of one’s golf skill in action. But neither, on the other hand, did he ever bean a Secret Serviceman.”

— John F. Kennedy

484. “Let us make it clear that we will never turn our backs on our steadfast friends in Israel, whose adherence to the democratic way must be admired by all friends of freedom.”

— John F. Kennedy

485. “Where else, in a non-totalitarian country, but in the political profession is the individual expected to sacrifice all-including his own career-for the national good?”

— John F. Kennedy

486. “When things don’t go well they like to blame presidents; and that’s something that presidents are paid for.”

— John F. Kennedy

487. “The world has been close to war before – but now man, who has survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into his mortal hands the power to exterminate the entire species some seven times over.”

— John F. Kennedy

488. “Is this Nation stating it cannot afford to spend an additional $600 million to help the developing nations of the world become strong and free and independentan amount less than this countrys annual outlay for lipstick, face cream, and chewing gum?”

— John F. Kennedy

489. “This is a work of fiction. Still, given an infinite number of possible worlds, it must be true on one of them. And if a story set in an infinite number of possible worlds is true in one of them, then it must be true in all of them. So maybe, it’s not as fictional as we think.”

— John F. Kennedy

490. “Unless liberty flourishes in all lands, it cannot flourish in one.”

— John F. Kennedy

491. “The new and terrible dangers which man has created can only be controlled by man.”

— John F. Kennedy

492. “The present tax codes inhibit the mobility and formation of capital, add complexities and inequities which undermine the morale of the taxpayer, and make tax avoidance rather than market factors a prime consideration in too many economic decisions.”

— John F. Kennedy

493. “In America there must be only citizens, not divided by grade, first and second, but citizens, east, west, north, and south.”

— John F. Kennedy

494. “The time is not far off when many nations in many parts of the world of many political shades and commitments will possess nuclear or even thermonuclear weapons.”

— John F. Kennedy

495. “As science, of necessity, becomes more involved with itself, so also, of necessity, it becomes more international. I am impressed to know that of the 670 members of this Academy.”

— John F. Kennedy

496. “The American presidency will demand more than ringing manifestos issued from the rear of the battle. It will demand that the President place himself in the very thick of the fight; that he care passionately about the fate of the people he leads .”

— John F. Kennedy

497. “We support the security of both Israel and her neighbors.”

— John F. Kennedy

498. “Anyone who is honestly seeking a job and can’t find it, deserves the attention of the United States government, and the people.”

— John F. Kennedy

499. “The voters selected us, in short, because they had confidence in our judgement and our ability to exercise that judgement from a position where we could determine what were their own best interest, as a part of the nation’s interest.”

— John F. Kennedy

500. “There is no city in the United States in which I can get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Columbia, Ohio.”

— John F. Kennedy