John F. Kennedy

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

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.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - 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 - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

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

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.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

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.

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.