John F. Kennedy Quotes About Risk

• There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

  John F. Kennedy

  Motivational, Leadership, Freedom

• The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital from static to more dynamic situations, the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth of the economy.

  John F. Kennedy

  New Ventures, Decision, Risk

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

• We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of a worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth - but neither shall we shrink from that risk any time it must be faced.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Risk, Victory

  Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation, delivered 22 October 1962

• [High income tax rates] not only check consumption but discourage investment and encourage...the avoidance of taxes [rather] than the production of goods.[...]Our present tax system...reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking.

  John F. Kennedy

  Effort, Risk, Incentives

• Our present tax system ... exerts too heavy a drag on growth ... It reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking ... The present tax load ... distorts economic judgments and channels an undue amount of energy into efforts to avoidtaxliabilities.

  John F. Kennedy

  Effort, Risk, Growth

• For to save mankind's future freedom, we must face up to any risk that is necessary. We will always seek peace - but we will never surrender.

  John F. Kennedy

  Freedom, Risk, Faces

  Address at the University of Washington's 100th Anniversary Program, www.jfklibrary.org. November 16, 1961.

• While it may be theoretically possible to demonstrate the risks inherent in any treaty... the far greater risk to our security are the risks of unrestricted testing, the risks of a nuclear arms race, the risks of new nuclear powers.

  John F. Kennedy

  Race, Risk, May

  Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Address to the Nation, delivered 26 July 1963

• No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can, if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers, offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.

  John F. Kennedy

  Race, Risk, Deception

  American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963

• Should I become President...I will not risk American lives...by permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported by our allies.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Commitment, Risk

• Bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us...No longer is the quest for disarmament a sign of weakness, (nor) the destruction of arms a dream - it is a practical matter of life or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks inherent in an unlimited arms race.

  John F. Kennedy

  Dream, War, Race

• I also want to take cognizance of the fact that this flight was made out in the open with all the possibilities of failure, which would have been damaging to our country's prestige. Because great risks were taken in that regard, it seems to me that we have some right to claim that this open society of ours which risked much, gained much.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, Taken, Risk

  Remarks at the Presentation of NASA's Distinguished Service Medal to Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. May 8, 1961.

• I am fully aware of the fact that the Democratic Party, by nominating someone of my faith, has taken on what many regard as a new and hazardous risk.

  John F. Kennedy

  Party, Taken, Risk

  Democratic National Convention Nomination Acceptance Address, delivered 15 July 1960, Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles

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