John F. Kennedy

The mere absence of war is not peace. The mere absence of recession is not growth.

The goals of our public welfare program must be positive and constructive. [The welfare program] must stress the integrity and preservation of the family unit. It must contribute to the attack on dependency, juvenile delinquency, family breakdown, illegitimacy, ill health, and disability. It must reduce the incidence of these problems, prevent their occurrence and recurrence, and strengthen and protect the vulnerable in a highly competitive world.

. . . Of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each of us - recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state - our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions - were we truly men of courage . . . were we truly men of judgment . . . were we truly men of integrity . . . were we truly men of dedication?

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. But let us begin.

In the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended up inside.

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

No easy problem ever comes to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them.

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. This is not the case.

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!