70 John F. Kennedy Quotes on Life, Politics, and Greatness

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 present are certain to miss the future.

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.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

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.

Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

A child miseducated is a child lost.

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.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.