Tribute to JFK and a Reminder to Us in His Own Words

Staff Writer: DL Mullan
History / Education
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There are a few quotes from John Fitzgerald Kennedy that people like to quote, but why stop there when he had so many interesting things to say. So I'm going to let him tell us the story of us.

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. 

 

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. 

 

We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.

 

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

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

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us. 

We believe that if men have the talent to invent need machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

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 rights of one man are threatened.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

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

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.

 

Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.

 

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. 

 

The stories of past courage can define that ingredient-they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. 

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

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. 

Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

Democracy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone will fail.

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

For 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 futures, and we are all mortal.

So let us dream in our mortal coil what lies beyond the daily grind are these words to live by.

Source:  The Quotation Page