As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
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If I am to die, this is the week for it. -- John F. Kennedy (to aide John McClone in response to a CIA report about rumours of an assassination plot), June 1962.
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So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.
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To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.
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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.
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My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now. -- (Comment made 10 April 1962 in reaction to news that U.S. Steel was raising prices by $6 per ton, right after the unions negotiated a modest new contract under pressure from JFK to keep inflation down.)
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According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step
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I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
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Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.
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We don’t see the end of the tunnel but I must say I don’t think it is darker than it was a year ago, and in some ways lighter.
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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 an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
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I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.
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Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
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Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.
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Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
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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.
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In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.
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Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.
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Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
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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. Today's military rejects include tomorrow's hard-core unemployed.
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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.
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The human mind is our fundamental resource.
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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.
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Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
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Khrushchev reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he has caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas.
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The New Frontier I speak of is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intent to ask of them.
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I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.
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Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
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Who can tell who will be the President a year from now? -- John F. Kennedy, speaking to the president of Harvard about why he did not want to delay signing documents relating to a future JFK Presidential Library, 2 October 1963.
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Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
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