Top 500 John F. Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “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

402. “You’re in there with me. Personally.”

— John F. Kennedy

403. “Richard Cromwell was not fit to wear the mantle of his uncle.”

— John F. Kennedy

404. “A police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.”

— John F. Kennedy

405. “Arms alone are not enough to keep the peace. It must be kept by men.”

— John F. Kennedy

406. “The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.”

— John F. Kennedy

407. “We cannot be satisfied with things as they are. We cannot be satisfied to drift, to rest on our oars, to glide over a sea whose depths are shaken by subterranean upheavals.”

— John F. Kennedy

408. “Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave.”

— John F. Kennedy

409. “Whatever the political affiliation of our next President, whatever his views may be on all the issues and problems that rush in upon us, he must above all be the chief executive in every sense of the word.”

— John F. Kennedy

410. “Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people.”

— John F. Kennedy

411. “If at times our actions seem to make life difficult for others, it is only because history has made life difficult for us all.”

— John F. Kennedy

412. “I think ‘Hail to the Chief’ has a nice ring to it.”

— John F. Kennedy

413. “The only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously.”

— John F. Kennedy

414. “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

— John F. Kennedy

415. “I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable – and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men – brave men – will make it so.”

— John F. Kennedy

416. “There has also been a change – a slippage – in our intellectual and moral strength. Seven lean years of drouth and famine have withered a field of ideas.”

— John F. Kennedy

417. “I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.”

— John F. Kennedy

418. “There is, in addition to a courage with which men die; a courage by which men must live.”

— John F. Kennedy

419. “I can evade questions without help; what I need is answers.”

— John F. Kennedy

420. “No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue.”

— John F. Kennedy

421. “Whether I serve one or two terms in the Presidency, I will find myself at the end of that period at what might be called the awkward age-too old to begin a new career and too young to write my memoirs.”

— John F. Kennedy

422. “Let’s not talk so much about vice. I’m against vice in all forms.”

— John F. Kennedy

423. “The poet and the politician have this in common: their greatness depends on the courage with which they face the challenges of life.”

— John F. Kennedy

424. “Whether they be young in spirit, or young in age, the members of the Democratic Party must never lose that youthful zest for new ideas and for a better world, which has made us great.”

— John F. Kennedy

425. “Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man’s place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man’s own nature.”

— John F. Kennedy

426. “We must start now to provide additional stimulus to the modernization of American industrial plants I shall propose to the Congress a new tax incentive for businesses to expand their normal investment in plant and equipment.”

— John F. Kennedy

427. “The fact that we live in a world that moves crisis by crisis does not make a growing interest in outdoor activities frivolous, or ample provision for them unworthy of the nation’s concern.”

— John F. Kennedy

428. “Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I’m the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.”

— John F. Kennedy

429. “A medical revolution has extended the life of our elder citizens without providing the dignity and security those later years deserve.”

— John F. Kennedy

430. “The great free nations of the world must take control of our monetary problems if these problems are not to take control of us.”

— John F. Kennedy

431. “If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testing.”

— John F. Kennedy

432. “The Federal Budget can and should be made an instrument of prosperity and stability, not a deterrent to recovery.”

— John F. Kennedy

433. “Last year, more Americans went to symphonies than went to baseball games. This may be viewed as an alarming statistic, but I think that both baseball and the country will endure.”

— John F. Kennedy

434. “The basis of effective government is public confidence.”

— John F. Kennedy

435. “While we shall negotiate freely, we shall not negotiate freedom.”

— John F. Kennedy

436. “There is, of course, a legitimate argument for some limitation upon immigration. We no longer need settlers for virgin lands, and our economy is expanding more slowly than in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”

— John F. Kennedy

437. “To each of us is entrusted the heavy responsibility of guiding the affairs of a democratic nation founded on Christian ideals.”

— John F. Kennedy

438. “The function and responsibility of the President is to set before the American people the unfinished business, the things we must do if we are going to succeed as a nation.”

— John F. Kennedy

439. “I must say that though other days may not be so bright, as we look toward the future, that the brightest days will continue to be those we spent with you here in Ireland.”

— John F. Kennedy

440. “Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people.”

— John F. Kennedy

441. “My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.”

— John F. Kennedy

442. “The complacent, the self-indulgent, the soft societies are about to be swept away with the debris of history.”

— John F. Kennedy

443. “Neither smiles nor frowns, neither good intentions nor harsh words, are a substitute for strength.”

— John F. Kennedy

444. “I know few significant questions of public policy which can safely be confided to computers. In the end, the hard decisions inescapably involve imponderables of intuition, prudence, and judgment.”

— John F. Kennedy

445. “Freedom is not merely a word or an abstract theory, but the most effective instrument for advancing the welfare of man.”

— John F. Kennedy

446. “I know my Republican friends were glad to see my wife feeding an elephant in India. She gave him sugar and nuts. But of course the elephant wasn’t satisfied.”

— John F. Kennedy

447. “Suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counter-weapons.”

— John F. Kennedy

448. “The science of weapons and war has made us all one world and one human race with one common destiny.”

— John F. Kennedy

449. “Peace does not rest in charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of the people.”

— John F. Kennedy

450. “There comes a point where you see no evidence that the carrot and diplomacy are working.”

— John F. Kennedy