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And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised, Patriotism
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2
A child miseducated is a child lost.
John F. Kennedy
Children
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A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers -- and this is the basis of all human morality.
John F. Kennedy
Obstacles
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4
A police state finds that it cannot command the grain to grow.
John F. Kennedy
Tyranny
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5
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.
John F. Kennedy
Conscription
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6
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. Todays military rejects include tomorrows hard core unemployed.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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7
According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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8
All my life Ive known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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9
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
John F. Kennedy
Beginning
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10
And if we are to open employment opportunities in this country for members of all races and creeds, then the Federal Government must set an example. The President himself must set the key example. I am not going to promise a Cabinet post or any other post to any race or ethnic group. That is racism in reverse at its worst. So I do not promise to consider race or religion in my appointments if I am successful. I promise only that I will not consider them.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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11
And so it is that I carry with me from this State to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories and fast friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusettsthe common threads woven by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrantwill not be and could not be forgotten in the Nations Executive Mansion. They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, my hopes for the future.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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12
And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscientthat we are only 6 percent of the worlds populationthat we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankindthat we cannot right every wrong or reverse every adversityand that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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13
As far as the job of President goes, its rewarding and I've given before this group the definition of happiness for the Greeks. I'll define it again: the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. I find, therefore, that the Presidency provides some happiness.
John F. Kennedy
President
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As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all the boats. And a partnership, by definition, serves both partners, without domination or unfair advantage. Together we have been partners in adversitylet us also be partners in prosperity.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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15
Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.
John F. Kennedy
Patriotism
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16
Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.
John F. Kennedy
Peace
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18
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy
Change
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Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.
John F. Kennedy
Communism and Socialism
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20
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
John F. Kennedy
Conformity
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21
Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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22
Don't buy a single vote more than necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.
John F. Kennedy
Politicians and Politics
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Dont teach my boy poetry, an English mother recently wrote the Provost of Harrow. Dont teach my boy poetry; he is going to stand for Parliament. Well, perhaps she was rightbut if more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place to live on this Commencement Day of 1956.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.
John F. Kennedy
Economy and Economics
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25
Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
John F. Kennedy
Effort
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26
Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. this is not the case.
John F. Kennedy
United States of America
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27
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
John F. Kennedy
Crime and Criminals
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28
Failure has no friends.
John F. Kennedy
Success
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29
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. I believe we should go to the moon. But there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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30
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
Uncategorised
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31
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 usrecording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the stateour success or failure, in whatever office we hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:First, were we truly men of couragewith the courage to stand up to ones enemiesand the courage to stand up, when necessary, to ones associatesthe courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?Secondly, were we truly men of judgmentwith perceptive judgment of the future as well as the pastof our mistakes as well as the mistakes of otherswith enough wisdom to know what we did not know and enough candor to admit it. Third, were we truly men of integritymen who never ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the men who believed in usmen whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?Finally, were we truly men of dedicationwith 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?Couragejudgmentintegritydedicationthese are the historic qualities which, with Gods help will characterize our Governments conduct in the 4 stormy years that lie ahead.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
John F. Kennedy
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For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the liedeliberate, contrived, and dishonestbut the mythpersistent, 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 F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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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
Courage
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Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy
Enemies
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I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
John F. Kennedy
Human Spirit
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I am deeply touchednot as deeply touched as you have been coming to this dinner, but nevertheless it is a sentimental occasion.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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I ask that you offer to the political arena, and to the critical problems of our society which are decided therein, the benefit of the talents which society has helped to develop in you. I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvilor a hammer. The question is whether you are to be a hammerwhether you are to give to the world in which you were reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of that education.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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39
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolutewhere no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to votewhere no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preferenceand where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewishwhere no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical sourcewhere no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officialsand where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jewor a Quakeror a Unitarianor a Baptist. It was Virginias harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jeffersons statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victimbut tomorrow it may be youuntil the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril. Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday endwhere all men and all churches are treated as equalwhere every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choicewhere there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kindand where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believea great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the Nation or imposed by the Nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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40
I do not think it altogether inappropriate to introduce myself to this audience. I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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41
I dont think that unless a greater effort is made by the Government to win popular support that the war can be won out there. In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Viet-Nam, against the Communists.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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42
I have just received the following wire from my generous Daddy. It says, Dear Jack: Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide.
John F. Kennedy
Election
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I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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44
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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45
I never know when I press these whether I am going to blow up Massachusetts or start the project.
John F. Kennedy
Public
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46
I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. 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 F. Kennedy
Arts and Artists
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I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
John F. Kennedy
Teamwork
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48
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy
Poverty and The Poor
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49
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
Sacrifice
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50
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 F. Kennedy
Arts and Artists
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51
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 allexcept 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 F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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52
If we cannot end our differences at least we can make the world safe for diversity.
John F. Kennedy
Conflict
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53
In free society art is not a weapon. Artists are not engineers of the soul.
John F. Kennedy
Arts and Artists
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54
In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.
John F. Kennedy
Right and Rightness
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55
In its [knowledges] light, we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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56
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.
John F. Kennedy
Freedom
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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 responsibilityI welcome it.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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58
In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.
John F. Kennedy
Effort
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59
Is this Nation stating it cannot afford to spend an additional $600 million to help the developing nations of the world become strong and free and independentan amount less than this countrys annual outlay for lipstick, face cream, and chewing gum?
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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60
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.
John F. Kennedy
Peace
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61
It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.
John F. Kennedy
Ecology
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It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.
John F. Kennedy
Leaders and Leadership
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63
It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds: a Harvard education and a Yale degree.
John F. Kennedy
Colleges and Universities
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64
Let every nation know... that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
John F. Kennedy
Liberty
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Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
John F. Kennedy
Liberty
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66
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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67
Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy
Fear
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Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy
Negotiation, Fear
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69
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.
John F. Kennedy
Change
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70
Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
John F. Kennedy
Education
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71
Life is unfair.
John F. Kennedy
Life and Living
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72
Lobbyists are in many cases expert technicians and capable of explaining complex and difficult subjects in a clear, understandable fashion. They engage in personal discussions with Members of Congress in which they can explain in detail the reasons for positions they advocate. Because our congressional representation is based on geographical boundaries, the lobbyists who speak for the various economic, commercial, and other functional interests of this country serve a very useful purpose and have assumed an important role in the legislative process.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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73
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.
John F. Kennedy
Computer
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74
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy
War
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75
Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said Because it is there. Well, space is there, and were going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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76
Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. -- They deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.
John F. Kennedy
Politicians and Politics
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77
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 the best generation of mankind in the history of the worldor to make it the last.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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78
Now the trumpet summons us againnot as a call to bear arms, though arms we neednot as a call to battle, though embattled we arebut a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulationa struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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79
Of course, both major parties today seek to serve the national interest. They would do so in order to obtain the broadest base of support, if for no nobler reason. But when party and officeholder differ as to how the national interest is to be served, we must place first the responsibility we owe not to our party or even to our constituents but to our individual consciences.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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80
Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.
John F. Kennedy
Expectation
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81
Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
John F. Kennedy
Physical exercise
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82
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.
John F. Kennedy
Humankind
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83
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
John F. Kennedy
Destiny
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84
Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
John F. Kennedy
Education
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85
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.
John F. Kennedy
Peace
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86
People have not been horrified by war to a sufficient extent... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy
Conscription
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87
So let us here resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not live, or die, in vain. Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And, as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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88
Somebody once said that Washington was a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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89
Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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90
So, let us not be blind to our differencesbut let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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91
The basis of effective government if public confidence.
John F. Kennedy
Government
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92
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.
John F. Kennedy
Freedom
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93
The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.
John F. Kennedy
Courage
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94
The day before my inauguration President Eisenhower told me, You'll find that no easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them. I found that hard to believe, but now I know it is true.
John F. Kennedy
Problem
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95
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
John F. Kennedy
Vision
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96
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve itand the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
John F. Kennedy
Uncategorised
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97
The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.
John F. Kennedy
Farming and Farmers
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98
The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.
John F. Kennedy
Third World
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99
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived, and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
John F. Kennedy
Truth
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100
The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
John F. Kennedy
Knowledge
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