John F. Kennedy

“Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.”

“The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.”

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

“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.”

“Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes... can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.”

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

“The best road to progress is freedom's road.”

“We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.”

“It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.”

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”

“A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten.”

“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.”

“My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight.”

“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”

“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”

“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.”

“Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.”

“Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.”

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.”

“The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.”

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

“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.”

“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.”