John F. Kennedy

Ich bin ein Berliner.

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.

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.

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.

We stand on the edge of a new frontier—the frontier of the 1960s—a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils—a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.

The supreme reality of our time is this: the threat of nuclear war.

My father always told me that all politicians are prostitutes.

My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial, beautifully worked out, and everybody agrees, something is wrong.

We are moving into a period where there is a good deal of cynicism about politics and public service.

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes in the end the spokesman of the entire community.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

We are going to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.

The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

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

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, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

I am not a Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

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

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.