John F. Kennedy Quotes About Challenges

• But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  Passion, Past, Thinking

  Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, en.wikisource.org. July 15, 1960.

• United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do-for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and
  split asunder.

  John F. Kennedy

  Powerful, Odds, Challenges

  Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1961

• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Moon, Challenges, Chill

  Address at Rice University on nation's space effort, Houston, Tex., 12 Sept. 1962

• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Winning, Moon, Skills

  Address at Rice University on nation's space effort, Houston, Tex., 12 Sept. 1962

• 'The green beret' is again becoming a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom. I know the United States Army will live up to its reputation for imagination, resourcefulness, and spirit as we meet this challenge.

  John F. Kennedy

  Army, Fighting, Imagination

  "Letter to the United States Army". April 11, 1962.

• In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience - the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men - each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient - they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

  John F. Kennedy

  Courage, Inspiration, Loss

  Selected Quotations from John F. Kennedy's Book "Profiles in Courage", www.jfklibrary.org. 1957.

• In the years since man unlocked the power stored up within the atom, the world has made progress, halting, but effective, toward bringing that power under human control. The challenge may be our salvation. As we begin to master the destructive potentialities of modern science, we move toward a new era in which science can fulfill its creative promise and help bring into existence the happiest society the world has ever known.

  John F. Kennedy

  Moving, Science, Men

• To further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of artthis is one of the fascinating challenges of these days.

  John F. Kennedy

  Appreciation, People, Presidential

  John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Magnum Photos, inc, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (U.S.) (1962). “Creative America”

• The poet and the politician have this in common: their greatness depends on the courage with which they face the challenges of life.

  John F. Kennedy

  Greatness, Challenges, Faces

• I ask particularly that those of you who are now in school will prepare yourselves to bear the burden of leadership over the next 40 years here in the United States, and make sure that the United States - which I believe almost alone has maintained watch and ward for freedom - that the United States meet its responsibility. That is a wonderful challenge for us as a people.

  John F. Kennedy

  Believe, School, Responsibility

  "Remarks at the Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington". September 27, 1963.

• When I ran for Presidency of the United States, I knew that this country faced serious challenges, but I could not realize - nor could any man realize who does not bear the burdens of this office - how heavy and constant would be those burdens

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Men, Office

  Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.539, Best Books on

• The New Frontier of which I speak 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 intend to ask of them.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Encouragement, Business

  Speech accepting Democratic presidential nomination, Los Angeles, Cal., 15 July 1960.

• If scientific discovery has not been an unalloyed blessing, if it has conferred on mankind the power not only to create but also to annihilate, it has at the same time provided humanity with a supreme challenge and a supreme testing

  John F. Kennedy

  Blessing, Discovery, Challenges

  Kennedy, John F. (1964). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963”, p.806, Best Books on

• Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process-a way of solving problems.

  John F. Kennedy

  Challenges, Way, Generations

  American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963

• I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high - to permit the customary passions of political debate.

  John F. Kennedy

  Passion, Thinking, People

  Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, en.wikisource.org. July 15, 1960.

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