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There Is A Terrific Disadvantage In Not Having The Abrasive Quality Of The Press Applied To You Daily. Even Though We Never Like It, And Even Though We Wish They Didn't Write It, And Even Though We Disapprove, There Isn't Any Doubt That We Could Not Do The Job At All In A Free Society Without A Very, Very Active Press.

-John F. Kennedy

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There Is A Terrific

John F. Kennedy

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There Is A Terrific Disadvantage In Not Having The Abrasive Quality Of The Press Applied To You Daily. Even Though We Never Like It, And Even Though We Wish They Didn't Write It, And Even Though We Disapprove, There Isn't Any Doubt That We Could Not Do The Job At All In A Free Society Without A Very, Very Active Press.

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I Would Encourage Every American To Walk As Often As Possible. It's More Than Healthy; It's Fun.

We Are Under Exercised As A Nation. We Look Instead Of Play. We Ride Instead Of Walk. Our Existence Deprives Us Of The Minimum Of Physical Activity Essential For Healthy Living.

There Is No Other Airport In The World Which Serves So Many People And So Many Airplanes. This Is An Extraordinary Airport. . . It Could Be Classed As One Of The Wonders Of The Modern World.

To That World Assembly Of Sovereign States, The United Nations, Our Last Best Hope In An Age Where The Instruments Of War Have Far Outpaced The Instruments Of Peace, We Renew Our Pledge Of Support - To Prevent It From Becoming Merely A Forum For Invective - To Strengthen Its Shield Of The New And The Weak - And To Enlarge The Area In Which Its Writ May Run.

Sailing Has Given Me Some Of The Most Pleasant And Exciting Moments Of My Life. It Also Has Taught Me Something Of The Courage, Resourcefulness, And Strength Of Men Who Sail The Seas In Ships.

Our Progress As A Nation Can Be No Swifter Than Our Progress In Education. The Human Mind Is Our Fundamental Resource.

Let's Not Talk So Much About Vice. I'm Against Vice In All Forms.

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.

Wherever There Is Smoke There Is A Good Smoke Machine.

Art Establishes The Basic Human Truths Which Must Serve As The Touchstones Of Our Judgement. The Artist... Faithful To His Personal Vision Of Reality, Becomes The Last Champion Of The Individual Mind And Sensibility Against An Intrusive Society And An Offensive State.

Modern Cynics And Skeptics... See No Harm In Paying Those To Whom They Entrust The Minds Of Their Children A Smaller Wage Than Is Paid To Those To Whom They Entrust The Care Of Their Plumbing.

Art Establishes The Basic Human Truths Which Must Serve As The Touchstone Of Our Judgement.

I Do Not Say That All Men Are Equal In Their Ability, Character And Motivation. I Do Say That Every American Should Be Given A Fair Chance To Develop All The Talents They May Have.

I Believe In An America ... Where No Public Official Either Requests Or Accepts Instructions On Public Policy From The Pope, The National Council Of Churches, Or Any Other Ecclesiastical Source.

Effort And Courage Are Not Enough Without Purpose And Direction.

The New And Terrible Dangers Which Man Has Created Can Only Be Controlled By Man.

Freedom Is Indivisible, And When One Man Is Enslaved, All Are Not Free.

I Look Forward To An America Which Will Not Be Afraid Of Grace And Beauty.

The Civil Rights Movement Should Thank God For Bull Connor. He's Helped It As Much As Abraham Lincoln.

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.

A Police State Finds That It Cannot Command The Grain To Grow.

If We Cannot Now End Our Differences, At Least We Can Help Make The World Safe For Diversity.

There Is Nothing, I Think, More Unfortunate Than To Have Soft, Chubby, Fat-looking Children Who Go To Watch Their School Play Basketball Every Saturday And Regard That As Their Weeks Exercise.

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 We Begin To Master The Destructive Potentialities Of Modern Science, We Move Toward A New Era In Which Science Can Fulfill Its Creative Promise And Help Bring Into Existence The Happiest Society The World Has Ever Known.

For Plague And Pestilence, Plunder And Pollution, The Hazards Of Nature And The Hunger Of Children Are The Foes Of Every Nation. The Earth, The Sea And The Air Are The Concern Of Every Nation.

The Family Of Man Is More Than 3 Billion Strong. It Lives In More Than 100 Nations. Most Of Its Members Are Not White. Most Of Them Are Not Christians. Most Of Them Know Nothing About Free Enterprise Or Due Process Of Law Or The Australian Ballot.

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.

We Shall Be Judged More By What We Do At Home Than What We Preach Abroad.

Wealth Is The Means, And People Are The Ends. All Our Material Riches Will Avail Us Little If We Do Not Use Them To Expand The Opportunities Of Our People.

When Power Corrupts, Poetry Cleanses

Great Crises Produce Great Men, And Great Deeds Of Courage.

Irrational Barriers And Ancient Prejudices Fall Quickly When The Question Of Survival Itself Is At Stake.

Anyone Who Can Solve The Problems Of Water Will Be Worthy Of Two Nobel Prizes - One For Peace And One For Science.

No One Has Been Barred On Account Of His Race From Fighting Or Dying For America, There Are No White Or Colored Signs On The Foxholes Or Graveyards Of Battle.

There Is A Connection, Hard To Explain Logically But Easy To Feel, Between Achievement In Public Life And Progress In The Arts. The Age Of Pericles Was Also The Age Of Phidias. The Age Of Lorenzo De Medici Was Also The Age Of Leonardo Da Vinci. The Age Of Elizabeth Was Also The Age Of Shakespeare. And The New Frontier For Which I Campaign In Public Life, Can Also Be A New Frontier For American Art.

... The United States Was Not Built By Those Who Waited And Rested And Wished To Look Behind Them. This Country Was Conquered By Those Who Moved Forward, And So Will Space.

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 It -- The Right Of Future Generations To A Healthy Existence?" (john F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University Speech)

To Each Of Us Is Entrusted The Heavy Responsibility Of Guiding The Affairs Of A Democratic Nation Founded On Christian Ideals.

As Every Past Generation Has Had To Disenthrall Itself From An Inheritance Of Truisms And Stereotypes, So In Our Own Time We Must Move On From The Reassuring Repetition Of Stale Phrases To A New, Difficult, But Essential Confrontation With Reality. For The Great Enemy Of Truth Is Very Often Not The Lie-deliberate, Contrived And Dishonest-but The Myth-persistent, Persuasive And Unrealistic. Mythology Distracts Us Everywhere.

Our Progress As A Nation Can Be No Swifter Than Our Progress In Education. Our Requirements For World Leadership, Our Hopes For Economic Growth, And The Demands Of Citizenship Itself In An Era Such As This All Require The Maximum Development Of Every Young American's Capacity. The Human Mind Is Our Fundamental Resource.

Arms Alone Are Not Enough To Keep The Peace. It Must Be Kept By Men.

If All Of You Had Voted The Other Way - There's About 5500 Of You Here Tonight - I Would Not Be The President Of The United States.

I Look Forward To An America Which Will Not Be Afraid Of Grace And Beauty, Which Will Protect The Beauty Of Our Natural Environment, Which Will Preserve The Great Old American Houses And Squares And Parks Of Our National Past And Which Will Build Handsome And Balanced Cities For Our Future.

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.

National Parks And Reserves Are An Integral Aspect Of Intelligent Use Of Natural Resources. It Is The Course Of Wisdom To Set Aside An Ample Portion Of Our Natural Resources As National Parks And Reserves, Thus Ensuring That Future Generations May Know The Majesty Of The Earth As We Know It Today.

The Effort To Improve The Conditions Of Man, However, Is Not A Task For The Few. It Is The Task Of All Nations-acting Alone, Acting In Groups, Acting In The United Nations, For Plague And Pestilence, Plunder And Pollution, The Hazards Of Nature And The Hunger Of Children Are The Foes Of Every Nation. The Earth, The Sea And The Air Are The Concern Of Every Nation. And Science, Technology And Education Can Be The Ally Of Every Nation.

I'm Always Rather Nervous About How You Talk About Women Who Are Active In Politics, Whether They Want To Be Talked About As Women Or As Politicians.

Empowering Women

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.

By Calling Attention To 'a Well Regulated Militia,' 'the Security Of The Nation,' And The Right Of Each Citizen 'to Keep And Bear Arms,' Our Founding Fathers Recognized The Essentially Civilian Nature Of Our Economy... The Second Amendment Still Remains An Important Declaration Of Our Basic Civilian-military Relationships In Which Every Citizen Must Be Ready To Participate In The Defense Of His Country. For That Reason I Believe The Second Amendment Will Always Be Important.

We Also Need The Provisions In The Tax Bill That Will Permit Working Mothers To Increase The Deduction From Income Tax Liability For Costs Incurred In Providing Care For Their Children While The Mothers Are Working. In October The Commission On The Status Of Women Will Report To Me. This Problem Should Have A High Priority, And I Think That Whatever We Leave Undone This Year We Must Move On This In January.

Moral Courage Is More A Rare Commodity Than Bravery In A Battle Or Great Intelligence.

As We Express Our Gratitude, We Must Never Forget That The Highest Appreciation Is Not To Utter Words, But To Live By Them.

I Speak Of Peace, Therefore, As The Necessary Rational End Of Rational Men. I Realize The Pursuit Of Peace Is Not As Dramatic As The Pursuit Of War... But We Have No More Urgent Task.

Nuclear Weapons Are So Destructive And Ballistic Missiles Are So Swift, That Any Substantially Increased Possibility Of Their Use Or Any Sudden Change In Their Deployment May Well Be Regarded As A Definite Threat To Peace.

I Would Rather Be Accused Of Breaking Precedents Than Breaking Promises.

Broken Promises

Keeping Your Word

Breaking Promises

Freedom Has Many Difficulties And Democracy Is Not Perfect, But We Have Never Had To Put Up A Wall To Keep Our People In.

If (my Grandfather) Hadn't Left, I'd Be Working Over Here At The Albatross Company.

Nearly Forty Years Ago, A Distinguished Prime Minister Of This Country ... Said, 'they May Not Be Angels But They Are At Least Our Friends.'* I Must Say That I Do Not Think That We Probably Demonstrated In That Forty Years That We Are Angels Yet, But I Hope We Have Demonstrated That We Are At Least Friends.

Mothers All Want Their Sons To Grow Up To Be President, But They Don't Want Them To Become Politicians In The Process.

It Is Insane That Two Men, Sitting On Opposite Sides Of The World, Should Be Able To Decide To Bring An End To Civilization.

There Will Always Be Dissident Voices Heard In The Land, Expressing Opposition Without Alternatives, Finding Fault But Never Favor, Perceiving Gloom On Every Side And Seeking Influence Without Responsibility.

It Was Involuntary. They Sank My Boat.

If There Is One Path Above All Others To War, It Is The Path Of Weakness And Disunity.

Never Have The Nations Of The World Had So Much To Lose, Or So Much To Gain. Together We Shall Save Our Planet, Or Together We Shall Perish In Its Flames.

For A Subject Worked And Reworked So Often In Novels, Motion Pictures, And Television, American Indians Remain Probably The Least Understood And Most Misunderstood Americans Of Us All.

While They Came From A Variety Of Religious Backgrounds And Held A Wide Variety Of Religious Beliefs, Each Of Our Presidents In His Own Way Has Placed A Special Trust In God.

For In A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men, No Man, However Prominent Or Powerful, And No Mob However Unruly Or Boisterous, Is Entitled To Defy A Court Of Law. If This Country Should Ever Reach The Point Where Any Man Or Group Of Men By Force Or Threat Of Force Could Long Defy The Commands Of Our Court And Our Constitution, Then No Law Would Stand Free From Doubt, No Judge Would Be Sure Of His Writ, And No Citizen Would Be Safe From His Neighbors.

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.

O God, Thy Sea Is So Great And My Boat Is So Small.

I Can Assure You That Every Degree Of Mind And Spirit That I Possess Will Be Devoted To The Long-range Interests Of The United States And To The Cause Of Freedom Around The World.

No Government Or Social System Is So Evil That Its People Must Be Considered As Lacking In Virtue.

One Of The Best Ways To Expand His Horizon Is Through A Regular Reading Program.

Most Cities Are Nouns. New York's A Verb.

We've Spent Half The Expenditures, We've Wrecked Our Budget On All These Other Domestic Programs, And The Only Justification For It, In My Opinion, To Do It In The Pell-mell Fashion Is Because We Hope To Beat Them And Demonstrate That Starting Behind Them, As We Did By A Couple Of Years, By God, We Passed Them. I Think It Would Be A Helluva Thing For Us.

A Child Miseducated Is A Child Lost.

It Takes Two To Make Peace.

Not Every Child Has An Equal Talent Or An Equal Ability Or Equal Motivation, But They Should Have The Equal Right To Develop Their Talent And Their Ability And Their Motivation, To Make Something Of Themselves.

A Technological Revolution On The Farm Has Led To An Output Explosion--but We Have Not Yet Learned To Harness That Explosion Usefully, While Protecting Our Farmers' Right To Full Parity Income

I Can Evade Questions Without Help; What I Need Is Answers

The Torch Has Been Passed To A New Generation Of Americans, Born In This Century... Unwilling To Witness Or Permit The Slow Undoing Of Those Human Rights To Which This Nation Has Always Been Committed, And To Which We Are Committed Today.

Our Way Of Life Is Under Attack. Those Who Make Themselves Our Enemy Are Advancing Around The Globe. The Survival Of Our Friends Is In Danger. And Yet No War Has Been Declared, No Borders Have Been Crossed By Marching Troops, No Missiles Have Been Fired.

The Great Enemy Of The Truth Is Not The Lie, Deliberate, Contrived And Dishonest But The Myth Persistent, Persuasive And Unrealistic.

In Those Countries Where Income Taxes Are Lower Than In The United States, The Ability To Defer The Payment Of U.s. Tax By Retaining Income In The Subsidiary Companies Provides A Tax Advantage For Companies Operating Through Overseas Subsidiaries That Is Not Available To Companies Operating Solely In The United States. Many American Investors Properly Made Use Of This Deferral In The Conduct Of Their Foreign Investment.

I Had Always Enjoyed The Title Of Commander-in-chief Until I Was Informed ... That The Only Forces That Cannot Be Transferred From Washington Without My Express Permission Are The Members Of The Marine Corps Band. Those Are The Only Forces I Have. I Want It Announced That We Propose To Hold The White House Against All Odds At Least For Some Time To Come.

President Roosevelt And President Truman And President Eisenhower Had The Same Experience, They All Made The Effort To Get Along With The Russians. But Every Time, Finally It Failed. And The Reason It Failed Was Because The Communists Are Determined To Destroy Us, And Regardless Of What Hand Of Friendship We May Hold Out Or What Arguments We May Put Up, The Only Thing That Will Make That Decisive Difference Is The Strength Of The United States.

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.

The American Labor Movement Has Consistently Demonstrated Its Devotion To The Public Interest. It Is, And Has Been, Good For All America.

Labour Movement

In Free Society Art Is Not A Weapon...artists Are Not Engineers Of The Soul.

Our Present Tax System ... Exerts Too Heavy A Drag On Growth ... It Reduces The Financial Incentives For Personal Effort, Investment, And Risk-taking ... The Present Tax Load ... Distorts Economic Judgments And Channels An Undue Amount Of Energy Into Efforts To Avoidtaxliabilities.

The Guiding Principle Of This Nation Has Been, Is Now, And Ever Shall Be In God We Trust.

Guiding Principles

And Lastly, Chairman Khrushchev Has Compared The United States To A Worn-out Runner Living On Its Past Performance, And Stated That The Soviet Union Would Out-produce The United States By 1970. Without Wishing To Trade Hyperbole With The Chairman, I Do Suggest That He Reminds Me Of The Tiger Hunter Who Has Picked A Place On The Wall To Hang The Tiger's Skin Long Before He His Caught The Tiger. This Tiger Has Other Ideas.

As Science, Of Necessity, Becomes More Involved With Itself, So Also, Of Necessity, It Becomes More International. I Am Impressed To Know That Of The 670 Members Of This Academy

If At Times Our Actions Seem To Make Life Difficult For Others, It Is Only Because History Has Made Life Difficult For Us All.

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.

When I Was Growing Up I Had Three Wishes. I Wanted To Be A Lindbergh-type Hero, Learn Chinese, And Become A Member Of The Algonquin Round Table.

Each Increase Of Tension Has Produced An Increase Of Arms; Each Increase Of Arms Has Produced An Increase Of Tension.

When You Have Seven Percent Unemployed, You Have Ninety-three Percent Working.

This Nation Was Founded By 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 Rights Of One Man Are Threatened ... It Ought To To Be Possible, In Short, For Every American To Enjoy The Privileges Of Being American Without Regard To His Race Or His Color.

The Greeks Understood That Mind And Body Must Develop In Harmonious Proportions To Produce A Creative Intelligence. And So Did The Most Brilliant Intelligence Of Our Earliest Days - Thomas Jefferson - When He Said, Not Less Than Two Hours A Day Should Be Devoted To Exercise. If The Man Who Wrote The Declaration Of Independence, Was Secretary Of State, And Twice President, Could Give It Two Hours, Our Children Can Give It Ten Or Fifteen Minutes.

We Can Say With Some Assurance That, Although Children May Be The Victims Of Fate, They Will Not Be The Victims Of Our Neglect.

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?

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. Change Is The Law Of Life. And Those Who Look Only To The Past Are Certain To Miss The Future.

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 By A Hard And Bitter Peace.

There Is A Terrific Disadvantage In Not Having The Abrasive Quality Of The Press Applied To You Daily. Even Though We Never Like It, And Even Though We Wish They Didn't Write It, And Even Though We Disapprove, There Isn't Any Doubt That We Could Not Do The Job At All In A Free Society Without A Very, Very Active Press.

If More Politicians Knew Poetry, And More Poets Knew Politics, I Am Convinced The World Would Be A Little Better Place In Which To Live.

If We Are To Go Only Halfway Or Reduce Our Sights In The Face Of Difficulty... It Would Be Better To Not Go At All.

It Is True That My Predecessor Did Not Object, As I Do, To Pictures Of One's Golf Skill In Action. But Neither, On The Other Hand, Did He Ever Bean A Secret Serviceman.

For Only When Our Arms Are Sufficient Beyond Doubt Can We Be Certain Beyond Doubt That They Will Never Be Employed.

Art Is The Great Democrat, Calling Forth Creative Genius From Every Sector Of Society, Disregarding Race Or Religion Or Wealth Or Color

Courage--judgment--integrity--dedication--these Are The Historic Qualities Of The Bay Colony And The Bay State....and These Are The Qualities Which, With God's Help, This Son Of Massachusetts Hopes Will Characterize Our Government's Conduct In The Four Stormy Years That Lie Ahead.

Since The Time Of The Ancient Greeks, We Have Always Felt That There Was A Close Relationship Between A Strong, Vital Mind And Physical Fitness.

Our Growing Softness, Our Increasing Lack Of Physical Fitness, Is A Menace To Our Security.

If Men And Women Are In Chains Anywhere In The World, Then Freedom Is Endangered Everywhere.

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.

My Fellow Americans, Let Us Take That First Step. Let Us...step Back From The Shadow Of War And Seek Out The Way Of Peace. And If That Journey Is A Thousand Miles, Or Even More, Let History Record That We, In This Land, At This Time, Took The First Step.

To Further The Appreciation Of Culture Among All The People, To Increase Respect For The Creative Individual, To Widen Participation By All The Processes And Fulfillments Of Artthis Is One Of The Fascinating Challenges Of These Days.

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.

The Complacent, The Self-indulgent, The Soft Societies Are About To Be Swept Away With The Debris Of History.

Real Men Stay Faithful. They Don't Have Time To Look For Other Women Because They're Too Busy Looking For New Ways To Love Their Own.

A Journey To Thousand Miles Begins With One Step

If The Economy Of Today Were Operating Close To Capacity Levels With Little Unemployment, Or If A Sudden Change In Our Military Requirements Should Cause A Scramble For Men And Resources, Then I Would Oppose Tax Reductions As Irresponsible And Inflationary; And I Would Not Hesitate To Recommend A Tax Increase If That Were Necessary.

It Is Increasingly Clear That No Matter What Party Is In Power, So Long As Our National Security Needs Keep Rising, An Economy Hampered By Restrictive Tax Rates Will Never Produce Enough Jobs Or Enough Profits.

There Are Those Who Regard This History Of Past Strife And Exile As Better Forgotten. But, To Use The Phrase Of Yeats, Let Us Not Casually Reduce "that Great Past To A Trouble Of Fools." For We Need Not Feel The Bitterness Of The Past To Discover Its Meaning For The Present And The Future.

We Set Sail On This New Sea Because There Is New Knowledge To Be Gained, And New Rights To Be Won, And They Must Be Won And Used For The Progress Of All People. For Space Science, Like Nuclear Science And Technology, Has No Conscience Of Its Own. Whether It Will Become A Force For Good Or Ill Depends On Man, And Only If The United States Occupies A Position Of Preeminence Can We Help Decide Whether This New Ocean Will Be A Sea Of Peace Or A New Terrifying Theater Of War.

Abroad, The Balance Of Power Is Shifting. There Are New And More Terrible Weapons - New And Uncertain Nations - New Pressures Of Population And Deprivation.

I Believe In An America Where Religious Intolerance Will Someday End... Where Every Man Has The Same Right To Attend Or Not Attend The Church Of His Choice.

There Is Something That Happens When We Leave The Land And Enter The Ocean. It's Unexpected, The Environment Feels Strangely Welcoming. The Ocean Almost Feels Like... Home.

The United States, As The World Knows, Will Never Start A War. We Do Not Want A War. We Do Not Now Expect A War. This Generation Of Americans Has Already Had Enough - More Than Enough - Of War And Hate And Oppression. We Shall Be Prepared If Others Wish It. We Shall Be Alert To Try To Stop It. But We Shall Also Do Our Part To Build A World Of Peace Where The Weak Are Safe And The Strong Are Just. We Are Not Helpless Before That Task Or Hopeless Of Its Success. Confident And Unafraid, We Labor On - Not Toward A Strategy Of Annihilation But Toward A Strategy Of Peace.

The Time To Repair The Roof Is When The Sun Is Shining.

You Know Nothing For Sure...except The Fact That You Know Nothing For Sure.

Today, We Need A Nation Of Minutemen, Citizens Who Are Not Only Prepared To Take Arms, But Citizens Who Regard The Preservation Of Freedom As The Basic Purpose Of Their Daily Life And Who Are Willing To Consciously Work And Sacrifice For That Freedom.

Where Else, In A Non-totalitarian Country, But In The Political Profession Is The Individual Expected To Sacrifice All-including His Own Career-for The National Good?

No President Should Fear Public Scrutiny Of His Program. For From That Scrutiny Comes Understanding; And From That Understanding Comes Support Or Opposition And Both Are Necessary. I Am Not Asking Your Newspapers To Support The Administration, But I Am Asking Your Help In The Tremendous Task Of Informing And Alerting The American People. For I Have Complete Confidence In The Response And Dedication Of Our Citizens Whenever They Are Fully Informed.

Partnership Is Not A Posture But A Process-a Continuous Process That Grows Stronger Each Year As We Devote Ourselves To Common Tasks.

The Greeks Understood That Mind And Body Must Develop In Harmounious Proportions To Produce A Creative Intelligence.

We Have All Seen These Circus Elephants Complete With Tusks, Ivory In Their Head And Thick Skins, Who Move Around The Circus Ring And Grab The Tail Of The Elephant Ahead Of Them.

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.

A Canadian Newspaperman Said Yesterday That This Is The President's "easter Egghead Roll On The White House Lawn." I Want To Deny That!

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.

I Have Seen In Many Places Housing Which Has Been Developed Under Government Influences, But I Have Never Seen Any Projects In Which Governments Have Played Their Part Which Have Fountains And Statues And Grass And Trees, Which Are As Important To The Concept Of The Home As The Roof Itself.

A Wall Is A Hell Of A Lot Better Than A War.

Once You Say You're Going To Settle For Second, That's What Happens To You In Life.

I Am The One Person Who Can Truthfully Say, I Got My Job Through The New York Times.

Now Let Me Make It Clear That I Believe There Can Only Be One Defense Policy For The United States And That Is Summed Up In The Word 'first.' I Do Not Mean First, But. I Do Not Mean First, When. I Do Not Mean First, If. I Mean First - Period.

We Should Not Let Our Fears Hold Us Back From Pursuing Our Hopes.

War Will Exist Until That Distant Day When The Conscientious Objector Enjoys The Same Reputation And Prestige That The Warrior Does Today.

An Economy Hampered By Restrictive Tax Rates Will Never Produce Enough Jobs Or Enough Profits

[high Income Tax Rates] Not Only Check Consumption But Discourage Investment And Encourage...the Avoidance Of Taxes [rather] Than The Production Of Goods.[...]our Present Tax System...reduces The Financial Incentives For Personal Effort, Investment, And Risk-taking.

This Knowledge, The Knowledge That The Physical Well-being Of The Citizen Is An Important Foundation For All Of The Activities Of The Nation, Is As Old As Western Civilization Itself.

We Had A Dog Who Was Named Pushinka, Who Was Given To My Father By A Soviet Official. And We Trained That Dog To Slide Down The Slide We Had In The Back Of The White House. Sliding The Dog Down That Slide Is Probably My First Memory.

Our Labor Unions Are Not Narrow, Self-seeking Groups. They Have Raised Wages, Shortened Hours, And Provided Supplemental Benefits. Through Collective Bargaining And Grievance Procedures, They Have Brought Justice And Democracy To The Shop Floor.

By The Age Of Six The Average Child Will Have Completed The Basic American Education.... From Television, The Child Will Have Learned How To Pick A Lock, Commit A Fairly Elaborate Bank Holdup, Prevent Wetness All Day Long, Get The Laundry Twice As White, And Kill People With A Variety Of Sophisticated Armaments.

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.

If This Capsule History Of Our Progress Teaches Us Anything, It Is That Man, In His Quest For Knowledge And Progress, Is Determined And Cannot Be Deterred.

Politics Is A Jungle-torn Between Doing The Right Thing And Staying In Office.

There Is, In Addition To A Courage With Which Men Die; A Courage By Which Men Must Live.

We Can Have Faith In The Future Only If We Have Faith In Ourselves.

With A Good Conscience Our Only Sure Reward, With History The Final Judge Of Our Deeds, Let Us Go Forth To Lead The Land We Love, Asking His Blessing And His Help, But Knowing That Here On Earth God's Work Must Truly Be Our Own.

The Efforts Of Governments Alone Will Never Be Enough. In The End, The People Must Choose And The People Must Help Themselves.

Finally, I Believe In An America Where Religious Intolerance Will Someday End; Where All Men And All Churches Are Treated As Equal; Where Every Man Has The Same Right To Attend Or Not Attend The Church Of His Choice; Where There Is No Catholic Vote, No Anti-catholic Vote, No Bloc Voting Of Any Kind; And 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.

And Only The Very Courageous Will Be Able To Keep Alive The Spirit Of Individualism And Dissent Which Gave Birth To This Nation, Nourished It As An Infant, And Carried It Through Its Severest Tests Upon The Attainment Of Its Maturity.

Should I Become President...i Will Not Risk American Lives...by Permitting Any Other Nation To Drag Us Into The Wrong War At The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time Through An Unwise Commitment That Is Unwise Militarily, Unnecessary To Our Security And Unsupported By Our Allies.

We Support The Security Of Both Israel And Her Neighbors.

The Greater Our Knowledge Increases The More Our Ignorance Unfolds.

If Art Is To Nourish The Roots Of Our Culture, Society Must Set The Artist Free To Follow His Vision Wherever It Takes Him.

We Have The Power To Make This The Best Generation Of Mankind In The History Of The World Or To Make It The Last.

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... Second, Were We Truly Men Of Judgment... Third, Were We Truly Men Of Integrity... Finally, Were We Truly Men Of Dedication?-

... The Athenian Lawmaker Solon Decreed It A Crime For Any Citizen To Shrink From Controversy.

Compromise Does Not Mean Cowardice.

I Think When We Talk About Corporal Punishment, And We Have To Think About Our Own Children, And We Are Rather Reluctant, It Seems To Me, To Have Other People Administering Punishment To Our Own Children, Because We Are Reluctant, It Puts A Special Obligation On Us To Maintain Order And To Send Children Out From Our Homes Who Accept The Idea Of Discipline. So I Would Not Be For Corporal Punishment In The School, But I Would Be For Very Strong Discipline At Home So We Don't Place An Unfair Burden On Our Teachers.

For Without Belittling The Courage With Which Men Have Died, We Should Not Forget Those Acts Of Courage With Which Men Have Lived.

Our True Choice Is Not Between Tax Reduction On The One Hand And The Avoidance Of Large Federal Deficits On The Other. It Is Increasingly Clear That No Matter What Party Is In Power, So Long As Our National Security Needs Keep Rising, An Economy Hampered By Restrictive Tax Rates Will Never Produce Enough Revenues To Balance Our Budget, Just As It Will Never Produce Enough Jobs Or Enough Profits.

We Need Men Who Can Dream Of Things That Never Were.

World Peace, Like Community Peace, Does Not Require That Each Man Love His Neighbor - It Requires Only That They Live Together With Mutual Tolerance, Submitting Their Disputes To A Just And Peaceful Settlement.

Lofty Words Cannot Construct An Alliance Or Maintain It; Only Concrete Deeds Can Do That.

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 Will 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.

Our Most Basic Common Link Is That We All Inhabit This Small Planet.

Ask Not That The Journey Be Easy; Ask Instead That It Be Worth It.

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 Of The Nation.

Je Me Sens Vraiment Entre Amis. (i Feel That I Am Truly Among Friends.)

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.

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.

What Church I Go To On Sunday, What Dogma Of The Catholic Church I Believe In, Is My Business; And Whatever Faith Any Other American Has Is His Business.

My Brother Bob Doesn't Want To Be In Government - He Promised Dad He'd Go Straight.

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.

There Is Too Little Public Recognition Of How Much We All Depend Upon Farmers As Stewards Of Our Soil, Water And Wildlife Resources.

According To The Ancient Chinese Proverb, A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Must Begin With A Single Step.

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.

There Are Indications Because Of New Inventions, That 10, 15, Or 20 Nations Will Have A Nuclear Capacity, Including Red China, By The End Of The Presidential Office In 1964. This Is Extremely Serious. I Think The Fate Not Only Of Our Own Civilization, But I Think The Fate Of World And The Future Of The Human Race, Is Involved In Preventing A Nuclear War.

Every Inhabitant Of This Planet Must Contemplate The Day When This Planet May No Longer Be Habitable .. The Weapons Of War Must Be Abolished Before They Abolish Us.

Nuclear Disarmament

Nuclear Proliferation

A Boy Spends His Time Finding A Girl To Sleep With. A Real Man Spends His Time Looking For The One Worth Waking Up To.

It Is With Great Satisfaction That I Have Signed Into Law The Social Security Amendments Of 1961. They Represent An Additional Step Toward Eliminating Many Of The Hardships Resulting From Old Age, Disability, Or The Death Of The Family Wage-earner. A Nation's Strength Lies In The Well-being Of Its People. The Social Security Program Plays An Important Part In Providing For Families, Children, And Older Persons In Time Of Stress, But It Cannot Remain Static. Changes In Our Population, In Our Working Habits, And In Our Standard Of Living Require Constant Revision.

Philanthropy, Charity, Giving Voluntarily And Freely... Call It What You Like, But It Is Truly A Jewel Of An American Tradition.

Our Goal Is Not Victory Of Might But The Vindication Of Right - Not Peace At The Expense Of Freedom, But Both Peace And Freedom, Here In This Hemisphere And, We Hope, Around The World. God Willing, That Goal Will Be Achieved.

I Would Not Look With Favor Upon A President Working To Subvert The First Amendment's Guarantees Of Religious Liberty ... Neither Do I Look With Favor Upon Those Who Would Work To Subvert Article Vi Of The Constitution By Requiring A Religious Test - Even By Indirection.

When Things Don't Go Well They Like To Blame Presidents; And That's Something That Presidents Are Paid For.

I Was Born An American, I Live Like An American, I Will Die An American.

Will Rogers Once Said It Is Not The Original Investment In A Congressman That Counts; It Is The Upkeep.

Now We Have A Problem In Making Our Power Credible, And Vietnam Is The Place.

If A Beach-head Of Cooperation May Push Back The Jungle Of Suspicion, Let Both Sides Join In Creating A New Endeavor, Not A New Balance Of Power, But A New World Of Law, Where The Strong Are Just And The Weak Secure And The Peace Preserved. All This Will Not Be Finished In The First One Hundred Days. Nor Will It Be Finished In The First One Thousand Days, Nor In The Life Of This Administration, Nor Even Perhaps In Our Lifetime On This Planet. But Let Us Begin.

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