Quotes to inspire and reflect

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

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.

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.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.

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

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.

A child miseducated is a child lost.

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

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today's military rejects include tomorrow's hard-core unemployed.

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

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

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

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.

Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

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

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate... we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

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

I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.

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

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

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

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.

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.

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

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

I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

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.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

The best road to progress is freedom's road.

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

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

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.

We would never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.

Blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

The bulk of the world’s knowledge is an imaginary construction.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.