John F. Kennedy Quotes About Politics

• Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  4th Of July, Responsibility, Past

  John F. Kennedy's Speech at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland, www.jfklibrary.org. February 18, 1958.

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

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

• Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  Address on first anniversary of Alliance for Progress, 13 Mar. 1962

• A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

  John F. Kennedy

  Christian, Peace, War

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.163, Best Books on

• 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 parishoners 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Believe, School, Men

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

• No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business.

  John F. Kennedy

  Responsibility, Government, Political

  Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.326, Best Books on

• A revolution is coming – a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough – but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.

  John F. Kennedy

  Wise, Character, Successful

• The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Ignorance, Voting

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

• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Freedom, 4th Of July

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

• If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Differences, Diversity

  1963 Speech, American University, Washington DC, 10 Jun.

• Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased - not a reduced - flow of revenues to the federal government.

  John F. Kennedy

  Yield, Government, Years

• Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.

  John F. Kennedy

  Jobs, Political, Politics

• Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.

  John F. Kennedy

  Change, Destiny, History

• Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.

  John F. Kennedy

  Mom, Mother, Growing Up

  John F. Kennedy, Dominique Enright (2003). “The Wicked Wit of John F. Kennedy”, Michael O'Mara Books

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

  John F. Kennedy

  Historical, Experience, Generations

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

• Politics is a jungle-torn between doing the right thing and staying in office.

  John F. Kennedy

  Office, Politics, Torn

• Political action is the highest responsibility of a citizen.

  John F. Kennedy

  Responsibility, Political, Citizens

• 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

• All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days . . .nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  Inaugural address, 20 Jan. 1961

• Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.

  John F. Kennedy

  Determination, Mean, Self

  Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 25 September 1961

• Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

  John F. Kennedy

  Football, Motivational Sports, Political

• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Wisdom, Government, Justice

  Speech at White House, 27 May 1961, in New York Times 28 May 1961, p. 39

• I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

  John F. Kennedy

  Party, Hymns, Political

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

• A rising tide (in the economy) lifts all boats.

  John F. Kennedy

  Political, Rising, Politics

• I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.

  John F. Kennedy

  Daddy, Wire, Politics

  Remarks at Gridiron Dinner,Washington, D.C., 15 Mar. 1958.

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