Top 500 John F. Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.”

— John F. Kennedy

202. “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”

— John F. Kennedy

203. “Any danger spot is tenable if men, brave men, will make it so.”

— John F. Kennedy

204. “For I can assure you that we love our country, not for what it was, though it has always been great – not for what it is, though of this we are deeply proud – but for what it someday can, and, through the efforts of us all, someday will be.”

— John F. Kennedy

205. “The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.”

— John F. Kennedy

206. “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.”

— John F. Kennedy

207. “Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience.”

— John F. Kennedy

208. “Libraries should be open to all – except the censor.”

— John F. Kennedy

209. “Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.”

— John F. Kennedy

210. “I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high – to permit the customary passions of political debate.”

— John F. Kennedy

211. “Peace is a process, a way of solving problems.”

— John F. Kennedy

212. “Sailing has given me some of the most pleasant and exciting moments of my life. It also has taught me something of the courage, resourcefulness, and strength of men who sail the seas in ships.”

— John F. Kennedy

213. “Race has no place in American life or law.”

— John F. Kennedy

214. “Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color.”

— John F. Kennedy

215. “Lets talk to one another instead of about one another.”

— John F. Kennedy

216. “The state is the servant of the citizen, and not his master.”

— John F. Kennedy

217. “In that case, there is no time to lose. Plant it this afternoon!”

— John F. Kennedy

218. “In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.”

— John F. Kennedy

219. “War and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.”

— John F. Kennedy

220. “The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.”

— John F. Kennedy

221. “We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.”

— John F. Kennedy

222. “Our problems are manmade – therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable – and we believe they can do it again.”

— John F. Kennedy

223. “If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.”

— John F. Kennedy

224. “The only significance of analyzing the past is that it does give us some key to the future.”

— John F. Kennedy

225. “We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”

— John F. Kennedy

226. “History will never accept difficulties as an excuse.”

— John F. Kennedy

227. “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”

— John F. Kennedy

228. “The war against hunger is truly mankind’s war of liberation.”

— John F. Kennedy

229. “What’s the use of being Irish if the world doesn’t break your heart?”

— John F. Kennedy

230. “Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.”

— John F. Kennedy

231. “A life of complete leisure is the hardest work of all.”

— John F. Kennedy

232. “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.”

— John F. Kennedy

233. “The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men.”

— John F. Kennedy

234. “No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business.”

— John F. Kennedy

235. “It takes two to make peace.”

— John F. Kennedy

236. “Word to the Nation: Guard zealously your right to serve in the Armed Forces, for without them, there will be no other rights to guard.”

— John F. Kennedy

237. “It was involuntary. They sank my boat.”

— John F. Kennedy

238. “The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.”

— John F. Kennedy

239. “When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we’d been saying they were.”

— John F. Kennedy

240. “Bullfight critics row on row Fill the enormous Plaza de toros But only one is there who knows And he is the one who fights the bull.”

— John F. Kennedy

241. “The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”

— John F. Kennedy

242. “The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use; of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.”

— John F. Kennedy

243. “We don’t want to be like the leader in the French Revolution who said There go my people, I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.”

— John F. Kennedy

244. “Happiness is the full use of one’s talents along lines of excellence.”

— John F. Kennedy

245. “It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.”

— John F. Kennedy

246. “Our nation is founded on the principal that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny.”

— John F. Kennedy

247. “A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.”

— John F. Kennedy

248. “Where nature makes natural allies of us all, we can demonstrate that beneficial relations are possible even with those with whom we most deeply disagree-and this must someday be the basis of world peace and world law.”

— John F. Kennedy

249. “Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen.”

— John F. Kennedy

250. “Lofty words cannot construct an alliance or maintain it; only concrete deeds can do that.”

— John F. Kennedy