Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.[Undelivered remarks for Dallas Trade Mart, November 22 1963]

Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive.

We need men who can dream of things that never were.

Libraries should be open to all – except the censor.[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.[Quoting Reverend Phillips Brooks, during Remarks at Presidential Prayer Breakfast, February 7 1963]

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer be of concern to great powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by winds...

I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of...

And so it is to the printing press–to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news–that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man...

The greater our knowledge increases the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.[Address at Rice University, September 12 1962]

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches...

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation...

From time to time our national history has been marred by forgetfulness of the Jeffersonian principle that restraint is at the heart of liberty. In 1789 the Federalists adopted Alien and Sedition Acts in a...

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...

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.[Inaugural Address, January 20 1961]

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.

The great enemy of 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...

There is nothing in the record of the past two years when both Houses of Congress have been controlled by the Republican Party which can lead any person to believe that those promises will be...

The life of the arts… is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.

Mankind must put an end to war – or war will put an end to mankind.[Address before the United Nations, September 25 1961]

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, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined...

But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure...

Terror is not a new weapon. Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example. But inevitably they fail, either because men are not afraid to die...

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

After visiting these two places (Berchtesgaden and the Eagle’s lair on Obersalzberg) you can easily see how that within a few years Hitler will emerge from the hatred that surrounds him now as one of...

If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools,...

The interaction of disparate cultures, the vehemence of the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity offered by a new life, all gave America a flavor and a character that make it as unmistakable...

And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights — the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation – the right to breathe air as nature provided...

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.[State of the Union Address January 11 1962]

To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required...

In the years since man unlocked the power stored up within the atom, the world has made progress, halting, but effective, toward bringing that power under human control. The challenge may be our salvation. As...

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.[Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, June 26 1963]

Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.

Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days . . .nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But...

Time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life.

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures. And however undramatic the pursuit of peace, that pursuit must go on.[Address before the United...

Do not pray for easy lives. Prey to be stronger men.

Our progress as a nation can be not swifter than our progress in education.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Peace is a process – a way of solving problems.

Let Us Be GratefulToday we give our thanks most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers – for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of...

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger–but recognize the opportunity.

I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes,...

This nation was founded by many men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the...