Top 500 John F. Kennedy Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts.”

— John F. Kennedy

352. “Of all the multitudes who throughout history have spoken for human dignity in times of great suffering and loss, no voice is more compelling than that of Anne Frank.”

— John F. Kennedy

353. “I can’t see that it’s wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law.”

— John F. Kennedy

354. “We have all seen these circus elephants complete with tusks, ivory in their head and thick skins, who move around the circus ring and grab the tail of the elephant ahead of them.”

— John F. Kennedy

355. “A tired nation, said David Lloyd George, is a Tory nation, and the United States today cannot afford to be either tired or Tory.”

— John F. Kennedy

356. “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.”

— John F. Kennedy

357. “You can milk a cow the wrong way once and still be a farmer, but vote the wrong way on a water tower and you can be in trouble.”

— John F. Kennedy

358. “There is danger that totalitarian governments, not subject to vigorous popular debate, will underestimate the will and unity of democratic societies where vital interests are concerned.”

— John F. Kennedy

359. “When I was growing up I had three wishes. I wanted to be a Lindbergh-type hero, learn Chinese, and become a member of The Algonquin Round Table.”

— John F. Kennedy

360. “In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.”

— John F. Kennedy

361. “Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.”

— John F. Kennedy

362. “Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.”

— John F. Kennedy

363. “The leadership of the American Legion has not had a constructive thought for the benefit of this country since 1918.”

— John F. Kennedy

364. “I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.”

— John F. Kennedy

365. “Easy money, sudden fortunes, increasingly powerful political machines and blatant corruption transformed much of the nation; and the Senate, as befits a democratic legislative body, accurately represented the nation.”

— John F. Kennedy

366. “To sound the alarm is not to panic but to seek action from an aroused public.”

— John F. Kennedy

367. “We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of a worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth – but neither shall we shrink from that risk any time it must be faced.”

— John F. Kennedy

368. “It’s only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead...”

— John F. Kennedy

369. “While we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.”

— John F. Kennedy

370. “The mere absence of war is not peace.”

— John F. Kennedy

371. “I am the one person who can truthfully say, I got my job through the New York Times.”

— John F. Kennedy

372. “I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty.”

— John F. Kennedy

373. “Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It’s the system that functions in the pinches that survive.”

— John F. Kennedy

374. “The world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution.”

— John F. Kennedy

375. “No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.”

— John F. Kennedy

376. “Persons are judged to be great because of the positive qualities they possess, not because of the absence of faults.”

— John F. Kennedy

377. “An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.”

— John F. Kennedy

378. “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

379. “Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.”

— John F. Kennedy

380. “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

381. “For a subject worked and reworked so often in novels, motion pictures, and television, American Indians remain probably the least understood and most misunderstood Americans of us all.”

— John F. Kennedy

382. “If there is one path above all others to war, it is the path of weakness and disunity.”

— John F. Kennedy

383. “The guiding principle of this Nation has been, is now, and ever shall be IN GOD WE TRUST.”

— John F. Kennedy

384. “We have become more and more not a nation of athletes but a nation of spectators.”

— John F. Kennedy

385. “What church I go to on Sunday, what dogma of the Catholic Church I believe in, is my business; and whatever faith any other American has is his business.”

— John F. Kennedy

386. “There are only two realities in life: death and laughter. We can do nothing to change the former, so we might as well do all we can to save the latter.”

— John F. Kennedy

387. “I’m 43 years old and I’m the healthiest candidate for the Presidency of the United States. You’ve travelled with me enough to know that I’m not going to die in office.”

— John F. Kennedy

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

— John F. Kennedy

389. “The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable.”

— John F. Kennedy

390. “If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries.”

— John F. Kennedy

391. “Now let me make it clear that I believe there can only be one defense policy for the United States and that is summed up in the word ‘first.’ I do not mean first, but. I do not mean first, when. I do not mean first, if. I mean first -period.”

— John F. Kennedy

392. “Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics towards which we can be indifferent.”

— John F. Kennedy

393. “Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process-a way of solving problems.”

— John F. Kennedy

394. “I am grateful to those Members of Congress who worked so diligently to guide the Equal Pay Act through. It is a first step. It affirms our determination that when women enter the labor force they will find equality in their pay envelopes.”

— John F. Kennedy

395. “Khrushchev reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger’s skin long before he has caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas.”

— John F. Kennedy

396. “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

397. “Just as I went into politics because Joe died, if anything happened to me tomorrow, my brother Bobby would run for my seat in the Senate. And if Bobby died, Teddy would take over for him.”

— John F. Kennedy

398. “Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.”

— John F. Kennedy

399. “We shall be judged more by what we do at home than what we preach abroad.”

— John F. Kennedy

400. “The credit of success is claimed by all, while a disaster is attributed to one alone.”

— John F. Kennedy