John F. Kennedy

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

We must use time as a tool not as a crutch.

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 in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as self-governing people to hear everything relevant.

Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century tempered by war disciplined by a hard and bitter peace proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. 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. All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1 000 days nor in the life of this administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. 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. 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.

With a good conscience our only sure reward with history the final judge of our deeds let us go forth to lead the land we love asking His blessing and His help but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

All free men wherever they may live are citizens of Berlin. And therefore as a free man I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'

Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.

The Family of Man is more than three billion strong. It lives in more than one hundred nations. Most of its members are not white. Most of them are not Christians. Most of them know nothing about free enterprise or due process of law or the Australian ballot.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days nor in the life of this administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.

When we got into office the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.

Once you say you're going to settle for second that's what happens to you.

Once you say you're going to settle for second that's what happens to you in life I find.

There is in addition to a courage with which men die a courage by which men must live.

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.

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. A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all morality.

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. A man does what he must- in spite of personal consequences in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures-and that is the basis of all morality.

Change is the law of life.