John F. Kennedy Quotes About Children

• Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Adversity, Home

• Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Motivational, Death

  Commencement Address at American University, Washington, D.C., 10 June 1963

• Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  Hope, Children, Presidential

  United States Committee for UNICEF, July 25, 1963.

• A child miseducated is a child lost.

  John F. Kennedy

  Education, Teacher, Children

• Let us not be blind to our differences-but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Mean, Air

  American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963

• Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

  John F. Kennedy

  Sad, Teacher, Appreciation

  Vanderbilt University 90th Anniversary Convocation Address, delivered 18 May 1963, Vanderbilt University Stadium, Nashville Tennessee

• I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children - not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Children, Men

  American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963

• We can say with some assurance that, although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Fate, Presidential

  "Remarks upon signing the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Bill". October 24, 1963.

• This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can't have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Children, Thinking

  Civil Rights Address, delivered 11 June 1963

• The effort to improve the conditions of man, however, is not a task for the few. It is the task of all nations-acting alone, acting in groups, acting in the United Nations, for plague and pestilence, plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea and the air are the concern of every nation. And science, technology and education can be the ally of every nation.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Technology, Men

  Final Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 20 September 1963, New York, NY

• Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Motivation, Should Have

  Civil Rights Address, delivered 11 June 1963

• By the age of six the average child will have completed the basic American education.... From television, the child will have learned how to pick a lock, commit a fairly elaborate bank holdup, prevent wetness all day long, get the laundry twice as white, and kill people with a variety of sophisticated armaments.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, School, Average

• Our deep spiritual confidence that this nation will survive the perils of today - which may well be with us for decades to come - compels us to invest in our nation's future, to consider and meet our obligations to our children and the numberless generations that will follow.

  John F. Kennedy

  Spiritual, Children, Presidential

  "Special message to the Congress on Conservation". March 1, 1962.

• Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Home, Israel

• Few nations do more than the United States to assist their least fortunate citizens-to make certain that no child, no elderly or handicapped citizen, no family in any circumstances in any State, is left without the essential needs for a decent and healthy existence. In too few nations, I might add, are the people aware of the progressive strides this country has taken in demonstrating the humanitarian side of freedom. Our record is a proud one-and it sharply refutes those who accuse us of thinking only in the materialistic terms of cash registers and calculating machines.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Children, Taken

• I have said that control of arms is a mission that we undertake particularly for our children and our grandchildren and that they have no lobby in Washington.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Presidential, Arms

  "Statement by the President to American Women Concerning their Role in Securing World Peace". November 1, 1963.

• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, America, Wish

  Broadcast address on civil rights, 11 June 1963

• The Greeks understood that mind and body must develop in harmonious proportions to produce a creative intelligence. And so did the most brilliant intelligence of our earliest days - Thomas Jefferson - when he said, not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise. If the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, was Secretary of State, and twice President, could give it two hours, our children can give it ten or fifteen minutes.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Exercise, Men

• It is extremely important that adequate provision be made for reasonable levels of income to them, for the care of the children which they must leave at home or in school, and for protection of the family unit. One of the prime objectives of the Commission on the Status of Women, which I appointed 18 months ago, is to develop a program to accomplish these purposes.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Home, School

  Kennedy, John F. (1964). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963”, p.465, Best Books on

• The lower the family income, the higher the probability that the mother must work. Today, 1 out of 5 of these working mothers has children under 3. Two out of 5 have children of school age. Among the remainder, about 50 percent have husbands who earn less than $5,000 a year-many of them much less. I believe they bear the heaviest burden of any group in our Nation. Where the mother is the sole support of the family, she often must face the hard choice of either accepting public assistance or taking a position at a pay rate which averages less than two-thirds of the pay rate for men.

  John F. Kennedy

  Mother, Children, Husband

  "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963".

• It is for these reasons that I believe we must expand day-care centers and provide other assistance which I have recommended to the Congress. At present, the total facilities of all the licensed day-care centers in the Nation can take care of only 185,000 children. Nearly 500,000 children under 12 must take care of themselves while their mothers work. This, it seems to me, is a formula for disaster.

  John F. Kennedy

  Mother, Children, Believe

  "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963".

• We also need the provisions in the tax bill that will permit working mothers to increase the deduction from income tax liability for costs incurred in providing care for their children while the mothers are working. In October the Commission on the Status of Women will report to me. This problem should have a high priority, and I think that whatever we leave undone this year we must move on this in January.

  John F. Kennedy

  Mother, Children, Moving

  Kennedy, John F. (1964). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963”, p.465, Best Books on

• It is with great satisfaction that I have signed into law the Social Security Amendments of 1961. They represent an additional step toward eliminating many of the hardships resulting from old age, disability, or the death of the family wage-earner. A nation's strength lies in the well-being of its people. The Social Security program plays an important part in providing for families, children, and older persons in time of stress, but it cannot remain static. Changes in our population, in our working habits, and in our standard of living require constant revision.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Stress, Lying

  "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961".

• For plague and pestilence, plunder and pollution, the hazards of nature and the hunger of children are the foes of every nation. The earth, the sea and the air are the concern of every nation.

  John F. Kennedy

  Children, Air, Sea

  Final Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 20 September 1963, New York, NY

• I think when we talk about corporal punishment, and we have to think about our own children, and we are rather reluctant, it seems to me, to have other people administering punishment to our own children, because we are reluctant, it puts a special obligation on us to maintain order and to send children out from our homes who accept the idea of discipline. So I would not be for corporal punishment in the school, but I would be for very strong discipline at home so we don't place an unfair burden on our teachers.

  John F. Kennedy

  Teacher, Strong, Children

  News Conference 56, May 22, 1963.

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