“You can milk a cow the wrong way once and still be a farmer, but vote the wrong way on a water tower and you can be in trouble.”
“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.”
“For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men have lived.”
“It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.”
“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
“The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.”
“When written in Chinese, the word ''crisis'' is composed of two characters -- one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”
“We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.”
“Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.”
“Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.”
“A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers -- and this is the basis of all human morality.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.”
“The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of the final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.”
“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.”
“The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”
“The New Frontier I speak of 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 intent to ask of them.”
“We are under exercised as a nation. We look instead of play. We ride instead of walk. Our existence deprives us of the minimum of physical activity essential for healthy living.”
“It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.”
“People have not been horrified by war to a sufficient extent... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today.”
“I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”
“World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor -- it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.”
“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”
“When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
“There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war, and some men are wounded, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. It's very hard in military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life”
“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
“We stand today on the edge of a new frontier -- the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges.”
“The day before my inauguration President Eisenhower told me, ''You'll find that no easy problems ever come to the President of the United States. If they are easy to solve, somebody else has solved them.'' I found that hard to believe, but now I know it is true.”