WIST

When I ran for Presidency of the United States, I knew that this country faced serious challenges, but I could not realize — nor could any man realize who does not bear the burdens of this office — how heavy and constant would be those burdens.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
“Radio and TV Report to the American People on the Berlin Crisis” (25 Jul 1961)
Full text.

Too often in the past, we have thought of the artist as an idler and dilettante and of the lover of arts as somehow sissy and effete. We have done both an injustice. The life of the artist is, in relation to his work, stern and lonely. He has labored hard, often amid deprivation, to perfect his skill. He has turned aside from quick success in order to strip his vision of everything secondary or cheapening. His working life is marked by intense application and intense discipline.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
“The Arts in America” (1962)

The weakness of man should not weaken the image of God.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(1962)

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Too often we … enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

There are risks and costs to a programme of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Extreme opposites resemble the other. Each believes that we have only two choices: appeasement or war, suicide or surrender, humiliation or holocaust, to be either Red or dead.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
(Attributed)
Quoted in The Imperial Presidency, ch. 11, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1973).

The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people — faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment — faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Profiles in Courage, ch. 11 (1956)

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. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Saturday Review (29 Oct 1960), response to questionnaire

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

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Why England Slept, closing words (1940)

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address to the Latin American diplomatic corps (13 Mar 1962)
On the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us — recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state — our success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

First, were we truly men of courage — with the courage to stand up to one’s enemies — and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one’s associates — the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

Secondly, were we truly men of judgment — with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past — of our mistakes as well as the mistakes of others — with enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it.

Third, were we truly men of integrity — men who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in us — men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Finally, were we truly men of dedication — with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and comprised of no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?

Courage — judgment — integrity — dedication — these are the historic qualities … which, with God’s help … will characterize our Government’s conduct in the 4 stormy years that lie ahead.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address to the Massachusetts legislature (9 Jan 1961)
As President-elect

But Goethe tells us in his greatest poem that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment: “Stay, thou art so fair.” And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, Assembly Hall at Paulskirche, Frankfurt (25 Jun 1963)

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 Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, Salt Lake City (26 Sep 1963)

All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, San Diego State College (6 Jun 1963)

And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient — that we are only 6 percent of the world’s population — that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind — that we cannot right every wrong or reverse every adversity — and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, U. of Washington’s 100th anniversary program, Seattle (16 Nov 1961)

Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this world the best generation of mankind in the history of the world — or make it the last.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Address, United Nations (20 Sep 1963)

We can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Commencement Address, American University (10 Jun 1963)
Full text.

For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived, and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinions without the discomfort of thought.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Commencement address, Yale (11 Jun 1962)

So, let us not be blind to our differences

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Commencement speech at American University, Wash., D.C. (10 Jun. 1963)

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Comment on the Vice Presidency (1960)

Quoted in T. Sorensen, <i>Kennedy</i>, ch. 1 (1965)