President Kennedy Quotes:

[On President Kennedy's assassination Nov. 22, 1963:] Something dreadful is going to happen to the president today.

- Jeane Dixon

topic: President, Today, President Kennedy, Assassination, President Kennedy's Assassination

While the question of who killed President Kennedy is important, the question 'what killed him' is more important.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: President, Important, President Kennedy

President Kennedy is very democratic and very penetrating.

- Marilyn Monroe

topic: President, President Kennedy, Democratic

When President Kennedy took office, I was in the midst of my education.

- Buzz Aldrin

topic: Office, President, President Kennedy

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

topic: Moon, Challenges, Chill, Space Race, Space Travel

Historians will come to their own judgments about President Kennedy. Here is how I choose to remember him. He was an heir to wealth who felt the anguish of the poor. He was an orator of excellence who spoke for the voiceless. He was a son of Harvard who reached out to the sons and daughters of Appalachia. He was a man of special grace who had a special care for the retarded and handicapped. He was a hero of war who fought hardest for peace. He said and proved in word and deed that one man can make a difference.

- Edward Kennedy

topic: Daughter, War, Hero, Handicapped, Appalachia

People don't realise what they had till it's gone. Like President Kennedy - nobody like him. Like The Beatles, there will never be anything like them. Like my man, Elvis Presley - I was the Elvis of boxing.

- Muhammad Ali

topic: Men, Boxing, People, Great Boxing, Boxing Champions

Growing up I used to ... one of my heroes growing up was President John F. Kennedy. And I actually have a memory box from when I was a little where I saved articles about President Kennedy. He was a real hero.

- Mike Pence

source: Source: www.dailyjournal.net

topic: Growing Up, Memories, Real, President John F Kennedy, Real Heroes

Courage is the virtue that President Kennedy most admired. He sought out those people who had demonstrated in some way, whether it was on a battlefield or a baseball diamond, in a speech or fighting for a cause, that they had courage that they would stand up, that they could be counted on.

- Robert Kennedy

topic: Baseball, Fighting, People, Profiles In Courage, President Kennedy

I believe history will come to view 9/11 as an event on par with November 22, 1963, the date on which John F. Kennedy was murdered, cutting short a presidency that was growing ever more promising. Dreams died that day in Dallas; it is easy to imagine the 1960s turning out rather differently had President Kennedy lived.

- Jon Meacham

topic: Dream, Believe, Cutting, President Kennedy

President Kennedy’s assassination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world dumb. It’s like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important.

- Kathryn Stockett

source: Kathryn Stockett (2009). “The Help”, p.360, Penguin

topic: Two, President Kennedy's Assassination, Silence, President Kennedy

When President Kennedy was elected, many black Americans, like so many Americans, were captivated by his youth and energy and promise and were especially hopeful that he might move the country in a new direction on civil rights.

- Marian Wright Edelman

source: "Ask What You Can Do For Your Country" by Marian Wright Edelman, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 22, 2013.

topic: Country, Moving, Rights, Captivated, President Kennedy

It is a tough choice. In war, people die. But when we refuse to confront the enemy, we will face the enemy in New York and Washington, as we did on 9-11. As for responsiblity, of course we stand by our decision to go to war on Iraq. President Kennedy said that friend and foe alike should know where America stands.

- George W. Bush

source: Source: www.counterpunch.org

topic: War, People, Choices, President Kennedy

You [President Kennedy] have made some pretty strong statements about their being defensive and that we would take action against offensive weapons. I think that a blockade and political talk would be considered by a lot of our friends and neutrals as being a pretty weak response to this [the Cuban missile crisis]. And I'm sure a lot of our own citizens would feel that way too. In other words, you're in a pretty bad fix at the present time.

- Curtis LeMay

topic: Strong, War, Thinking, Cuban Missile Crisis, Blockades

Fortunately, President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy disagreed with the estimate and chose a course of action less ambitious and aggressive than recommended by their advisers.

- David Kay

source: "David Kay Testifies Before Senate Committee". Cnn Live Event/Special, www.cnn.com. January 28, 2004.

topic: President, Ambitious, Action, President Kennedy

As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own.

- Charles Bolden

source: NASA Administrator Statement on Neil Armstrong's Death, www.nasa.gov. August 25, 2012.

topic: Book, Long, World, Armstrong, President Kennedy

We need the kind of leadership exemplified by President Kennedy to just do it! But we must do it as good stewards, aggressively exerting control over the moon. We can best do this by going there.

- Wilson Greatbatch

source: Wilson Greatbatch (2000). “The Making of the Pacemaker: Celebrating a Lifesaving Invention”

topic: Moon, President, Needs, Stewards, President Kennedy

President Kennedy understood the importance of equal pay for equal work and signed historic legislation that gave women around the country hope that one day their wages would be on par with that of their male counterparts.

- Rosa DeLauro

topic: Country, Equal Pay, One Day, Counterparts, President Kennedy

On several occasions President Kennedy encouraged me to take a lover, an obvious sign he also had some himself.

- Pierre Salinger

topic: Alaska, President, Lovers, President Kennedy

President Kennedy was a voracious reader and was forever coming up with fascinating bits of information.

- Pierre Salinger

topic: Forever, President, Information, President Kennedy

Part of what's unique about climate change, though, is the nature of some of the opposition to action. It's pretty rare that you'll encounter somebody who says the problem you're trying to solve simply doesn't exist. When President Kennedy set us on a course for the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn't be worth it; it was going to be too expensive, it was going to be too hard, it would take too long. But nobody ignored the science. I don't remember anybody saying that the moon wasn't there or that it was made of cheese.

- Barack Obama

topic: Unique, Moon, Numbers, President Kennedy

To paraphrase president Kennedy's inaugural, the torch has been passed to a new generation of cartoonists and they are doing really interesting stuff, taking the old cliches and breathing new life into them and inventing new ones. This doesn't mean the previous generation of which I'm a charter member isn't doing good stuff but this new material is invigorating everyone.

- Robert Mankoff

source: "Ask the Author Live: Robert Mankoff on the Cartoon Issue". The New Yorker Interview, www.newyorker.com. October 21, 2011.

topic: Interesting Stuff, President Kennedy

Both President Kennedy and President Reagan were roundly criticized by parts of the foreign policy establishment that felt they were being weak by engaging our adversaries. So some of it is built into a political lexicon that makes you sound tougher if you don't talk to somebody, and rather, very loudly, wield a big stick.

- Barack Obama

source: Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

topic: Political, President, Sound, Lexicon, President Reagan

Lyndon Johnson realized he really was President, that his identity had changed by President Kennedy's shocking death, when aides who had been like family to him minutes before, stood in his presence on Air Force One.

- Nancy Gibbs

topic: Air, President, Identity, Air Force One, Like Family

If Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with President Kennedy's assassination and was framed....this otherwise independent and defiant would-be revolutionary, who disliked taking orders from anyone, turned out to be the most willing and cooperative frame-ee in the history of mankind!! Because the evidence of his guilt is so monumental, that he could have just as well gone around with a large sign on his back declaring in bold letters 'I Just Murdered President John F. Kennedy'!!!

- Vincent Bugliosi

topic: Independent, Order, Guilt, President John F Kennedy, President Kennedy's Assassination

President Kennedy didn't negotiate out of the Cuban missile crisis simply because he and Khrushchev got along well. Khrushchev didn't have the cards.

- Colin Powell

topic: War, President, Cuban, Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy

You know, it's very clear, as one looks back on history again of the Cold War that, following the crisis in Cuba, following the Khrushchev - beating down of Jack Kennedy in Vienna, that President Kennedy believed that we had to join the battle for the Third World, and the next crisis that developed in that regards was Vietnam.

- Alexander Haig

topic: War, Battle, President, Jack Kennedy, President Kennedy

Our true remembrance to President Kennedy is in our actions to honor the unspoken words and finish the unfinished work today and tomorrow and for as long as it takes.

- Marian Wright Edelman

source: "Ask What You Can Do For Your Country" by Marian Wright Edelman, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 22, 2013.

topic: Unfinished Work, Long, Remembrance, Unspoken Words, Today And Tomorrow

President Kennedy was willing to go to war. He was not a coward. The man had been in war and so had Ken O'Donnell. He was ready to protect this nation, but he was not ready for a military solution just because it was being rammed down his throat.

- Kevin Costner

topic: Military, War, Men, President Kennedy

When sudden death takes a president, opportunities for new beginnings flourish among the ambitious and the tensions among such people can be dramatic, as they were when President Kennedy was killed.

- Russell Baker

topic: New Beginnings, Opportunity, People, Sudden Death, President Kennedy

It was around 1985 before I heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination.

- Peter O'Toole

topic: President Kennedy's Assassination, News, Heard, President Kennedy

President Kennedy was the greatest man I ever met, and the best friend I ever had.

- David Powers

topic: Friendship, Men, President, President Kennedy

When I mentioned about Adlai Stevenson, if he was vice president there would never have been an assassination of our beloved President Kennedy

- Jack Ruby

topic: President, Vices, Beloved, President Kennedy

So much of the deep lingering sadness over President Kennedy's assassination is about the unfinished promise: unspoken speeches, unfulfilled hopes, the wondering about what might have been.

- Marian Wright Edelman

source: "Ask What You Can Do For Your Country" by Marian Wright Edelman, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 22, 2013.

topic: Sadness, President Kennedy's Assassination, Promise, Unspoken, President Kennedy

Look at what President Kennedy managed to achieve during the Cuban missile crisis. If Bush had been president in 1962, do you think he would have avoided a nuclear war?

- Bianca Jagger

topic: War, Thinking, President, Missiles, Cuban Missile Crisis

Many people remember that spirit that President Kennedy summoned forth. Many people look to me as somebody who embodies that sense of possibility.

- Caroline Kennedy

topic: People, President, Looks, President Kennedy

Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy's statement that sometimes party asks too much.

- Arlen Specter

topic: Party, President, Too Much, President Kennedy

Scientists constantly get clobbered with the idea that we spent 27 billion dollars on the Apollo programs, and are asked "What more do you want?" We didn't spend it; it was done for political reasons. ... Apollo was a response to the Bay of Pigs fiasco and to the successful orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin. President Kennedy's objective was not to find out the origin of the moon by the end of the decade; rather it was to put a man on the moon and bring him back, and we did that.

- Carl Sagan

topic: Successful, Men, Moon, Bay Of Pigs, President Kennedy

I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for, and President Kennedy died for.

- Lyndon B. Johnson

topic: Vision, President, Kind, Truman, President Roosevelt

The Chinese say that you should never, ever buy a used desk unless you know the history of it. They claim that if it belonged to a bad businessman, his karma will befall you. This one here belonged to President Kennedy. So what do you think that means? (Randy) I don’t know, but if I were you, I wouldn’t ride through Dallas in a convertible in November. Bad feng shui. (Steele)

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

source: Sherrilyn Kenyon (2005). “Bad Attitude”, p.149, Simon and Schuster

topic: Karma, Mean, Thinking, Randy, Feng Shui

Well, I think the reality is that as you study - when President Kennedy cut marginal tax rates, when Ronald Reagan cut marginal tax rates, when President Bush imposed those tax cuts, they actually generated economic growth. They expanded the economy. They expand tax revenues.

- Mike Pence

topic: Cutting, Reality, Thinking, President Kennedy

I covered Kennedy when she was three years old and the darling daughter of President Kennedy who doted on her and whose mother did everything to protect her from the prying press.

- Helen Thomas

topic: Daughter, Mother, Years, Three Year Olds, President Kennedy

The decision to go to the moon is now appreciated and associated with President Kennedy's speech, but somebody else had told him it was a good idea. It turned out to be a good commitment, but it was a unique situation.

- Buzz Aldrin

topic: Commitment, Unique, Moon, President Kennedy

The one appearance that I made for President Kennedy, he, as I understand, had his choice or was asked to make a list of the people he would like to have perform, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them.

- Julie London

topic: People, Choices, President, President Kennedy

When you tax capital gains income, you don't help the economy, you hurt the economy, which is why President Kennedy, President Reagan, President Clinton and President Bush all believed we should have a lower rate for capital gains.

- Rob Portman

source: Interview with John King, www.realclearpolitics.com. April 19, 2012.

topic: Hurt, President, Income, Capital Gains, President Reagan

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, President Kennedy's sister, endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger, said he's not a womanizer. Of course by Kennedy standards that means he never drove one off a bridge.

- Bill Maher

topic: Mean, Bridges, President, Womanizer, President Kennedy

I remember the day when they sold Brian Deane and Jan Aage Fjortoft. It was like when President Kennedy got shot.

- Neil Warnock

source: "Warnock - mad as chips" by Kevin Mitchell, www.theguardian.com. March 23, 2002.

topic: Soccer, Football, President, President Kennedy

Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.

- Malcolm X

source: "The Ballot or The Bullet". Malcolm X's speech at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964) as quoted in "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements" edited by George Breitman, (pp. 23-44), 1965.

topic: Christian, Atheist, Men, President Kennedy