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

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

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

I think 'Hail to the Chief' has a nice ring to it.

I'm always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

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

The human mind is our fundamental resource.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For 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.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

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.

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

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

A child miseducated is a child lost.

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

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

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be a s big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight.

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

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes... can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

When power leads man toward 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.

For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.