Top 500 John F. Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “For plague and pestilence, plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea and the air are the concern of every nation.”

— John F. Kennedy

252. “Our goal is not victory of might but the vindication of right – not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.”

— John F. Kennedy

253. “Since the time of the ancient Greeks, we have felt that there was a close relationship between a strong vital mind and physical fitness.”

— John F. Kennedy

254. “It is insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.”

— John F. Kennedy

255. “Be aware of danger-but recognize the opportunity.”

— John F. Kennedy

256. “Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.”

— John F. Kennedy

257. “Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.”

— John F. Kennedy

258. “Israel was not created in order to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish.”

— John F. Kennedy

259. “A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.”

— John F. Kennedy

260. “There can be no progress if people have no faith in tomorrow.”

— John F. Kennedy

261. “We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”

— John F. Kennedy

262. “War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”

— John F. Kennedy

263. “We live in a hemisphere whose own revolution has given birth to the most powerful force of the modern age; the search for freedom and self fulfillment of man.”

— John F. Kennedy

264. “The very word Secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society.”

— John F. Kennedy

265. “There is too little public recognition of how much we all depend upon farmers as stewards of our soil, water and wildlife resources.”

— John F. Kennedy

266. “The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He’s helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln.”

— John F. Kennedy

267. “If I don’t have a woman every three days or so I get a terrible headache.”

— John F. Kennedy

268. “Whatever one’s religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts – including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state.”

— John F. Kennedy

269. “Wherever there is smoke there is a good smoke machine.”

— John F. Kennedy

270. “There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.”

— John F. Kennedy

271. “You never know what’s hit you. A gunshot is the perfect way.”

— John F. Kennedy

272. “To be courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place, and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all.”

— John F. Kennedy

273. “Only in the case of the Negro has the melting pot failed to bring a minority into the full stream of American life.”

— John F. Kennedy

274. “For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.”

— John F. Kennedy

275. “So, let us not be blind to our differences – but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.”

— John F. Kennedy

276. “The efforts of governments alone will never be enough. In the end, the people must choose and the people must help themselves.”

— John F. Kennedy

277. “No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary.”

— John F. Kennedy

278. “If I had to live my life over again, I would have a different father, a different wife and a different religion.”

— John F. Kennedy

279. “The pay is good and I can walk to work.”

— John F. Kennedy

280. “Remember that our nation’s first great leaders were also our first great scholars.”

— John F. Kennedy

281. “All my life Ive known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?”

— John F. Kennedy

282. “If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist, in economic, political, scientific, and all the other kinds of struggles, as well as the military, then the peril to freedom will continue to rise.”

— John F. Kennedy

283. “In our democracy every young person should have an equal opportunity to obtain a higher education, regardless of his station in life or financial means.”

— John F. Kennedy

284. “To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of artthis is one of the fascinating challenges of these days.”

— John F. Kennedy

285. “Every dollar released from taxation that is spared or invested will help create a new job and a new salary.”

— John F. Kennedy

286. “The deadly arms race, and the huge resources it absorbs, have too long overshadowed all else we must do. We must prevent that arms race from spreading to new nations, to new nuclear powers and to the reaches of outer space.”

— John F. Kennedy

287. “Democracy is the superior form of government, because it is based on a respect for man as a reasonable being.”

— John F. Kennedy

288. “The Federal Government is the people and the budget is a reflection of their need.”

— John F. Kennedy

289. “My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on.”

— John F. Kennedy

290. “An artist’s working life is marked by intensive application and intense discipline.”

— John F. Kennedy

291. “A nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future.”

— John F. Kennedy

292. “I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas.”

— John F. Kennedy

293. “And a revolution of automation finds machines replacing men in the mines and mills of America, without replacing their incomes or their training or their needs to pay the family doctor, grocer and landlord.”

— John F. Kennedy

294. “The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist, is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may.”

— John F. Kennedy

295. “I have said that control of arms is a mission that we undertake particularly for our children and our grandchildren and that they have no lobby in Washington.”

— John F. Kennedy

296. “I look forward to a great future for America – a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.”

— John F. Kennedy

297. “I want every American to be free to stand up for his rights, even if sometimes he has to sit down for them.”

— John F. Kennedy

298. “The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.”

— John F. Kennedy

299. “Nuclear weapons are so destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift, that any substantially increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to peace.”

— John F. Kennedy

300. “There are many people in the world who really don’t understand-or say they don’t-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!”

— John F. Kennedy