Top 500 John F. Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 7 of 10

301. “To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.”

— John F. Kennedy

302. “Mr. Nixon has, in the last seven days, called me an economic ignoramus, a Pied Piper, and all the rest. I’ve just confined myself to calling him a Republican. But he says that is getting low.”

— John F. Kennedy

303. “And only the very courageous will be able to keep alive the spirit of individualism and dissent which gave birth to this nation, nourished it as an infant, and carried it through its severest tests upon the attainment of its maturity.”

— John F. Kennedy

304. “The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.”

— John F. Kennedy

305. “I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as a self-governing people to hear everything relevant.”

— John F. Kennedy

306. “America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.”

— John F. Kennedy

307. “It is in the American tradition to stand up for one’s rights – even if the new way to stand up for one’s rights is to sit down.”

— John F. Kennedy

308. “The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education.”

— John F. Kennedy

309. “If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president’s.”

— John F. Kennedy

310. “Sure it’s a big job; but I don’t know anyone who can do it better than I can.”

— John F. Kennedy

311. “I was born an American, I live like an American, I will die an American.”

— John F. Kennedy

312. “The processes of growth are gradual, bearing fruit in a decade, not a day.”

— John F. Kennedy

313. “Struggle for freedom. Where people are denied the right of choice, recourse to such struggle is the only means of achieving their liberties.”

— John F. Kennedy

314. “No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and all of us are made better off whenever any one of us is made better off.”

— John F. Kennedy

315. “All of us in the Senate live in an iron lung-the iron lung of politics, and it is no easy task to emerge from that rarified atmosphere in order to breathe the same fresh air our constituents breathe.”

— John F. Kennedy

316. “My call is not to those who believe they belong to the past. My call is to those who believe in the future.”

— John F. Kennedy

317. “Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable.”

— John F. Kennedy

318. “For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”

— John F. Kennedy

319. “Nor problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.”

— John F. Kennedy

320. “Wealth is the means, and people are the ends. All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people.”

— John F. Kennedy

321. “I have a nice home, the office is close by, and the pay is good.”

— John F. Kennedy

322. “But however close we sometimes seem to that dark and final abyss, let no man of peace and freedom despair. For he does not stand alone.”

— John F. Kennedy

323. “For if Freedom and Communism were to compete for mans allegiance in a world at peace, I would look to the future with ever increasing confidence.”

— John F. Kennedy

324. “We had a dog who was named Pushinka, who was given to my father by a Soviet official. And we trained that dog to slide down the slide we had in the back of the White House. Sliding the dog down that slide is probably my first memory.”

— John F. Kennedy

325. “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.”

— John F. Kennedy

326. “If men and women are in chains anywhere in the world, then freedom is endangered everywhere.”

— John F. Kennedy

327. “I would encourage every American to walk as often as possible. It’s more than healthy; it’s fun.”

— John F. Kennedy

328. “A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today’s military rejects include tomorrow’s hard-core unemployed.”

— John F. Kennedy

329. “In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation.”

— John F. Kennedy

330. “We can say with some assurance that, although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect.”

— John F. Kennedy

331. “This country was founded by men and women who were dedicated or came to be dedicated to two propositions; first, a strong religious conviction, and secondly a recognition that this conviction could flourish only under a system of freedom.”

— John F. Kennedy

332. “We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.”

— John F. Kennedy

333. “We believe that when men reach beyond this planet, they should leave their national differences behind them.”

— John F. Kennedy

334. “Our economy today depends upon women in the labor force. One out of three workers is a woman. Today, there are almost 25 million women employed, and their number is rising faster than the number of men in the labor force.”

— John F. Kennedy

335. “Someone always needs rescuing, yet there’s only one person who ever seems to understand you. It’s a lot like being Lassie.”

— John F. Kennedy

336. “Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet.”

— John F. Kennedy

337. “I do not say that all men are equal in their ability, character and motivation. I do say that every American should be given a fair chance to develop all the talents they may have.”

— John F. Kennedy

338. “Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.”

— John F. Kennedy

339. “In order to know who you are you need to know God is.”

— John F. Kennedy

340. “We must recognize that every nation determines its policies in terms of its own interests.”

— John F. Kennedy

341. “Our Constitution wisely assigns both joint and separate roles to each branch of the government; and a President and a Congress who hold each other in mutual respect will neither permit nor attempt any trespass.”

— John F. Kennedy

342. “I was never accepted into certain parts of New England society because my grandfather was an Irish barkeep.”

— John F. Kennedy

343. “I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.”

— John F. Kennedy

344. “I am fully aware of the fact that the Democratic Party, by nominating someone of my faith, has taken on what many regard as a new and hazardous risk.”

— John F. Kennedy

345. “Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government.”

— John F. Kennedy

346. “Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.”

— John F. Kennedy

347. “Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.”

— John F. Kennedy

348. “For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.”

— John F. Kennedy

349. “Blight has descended on our regulatory agencies – and a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of America – in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right.”

— John F. Kennedy

350. “The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American’s freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight.”

— John F. Kennedy