Thank you for your service to our nation.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
John F. Kennedy

Democracy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone will fail.
John F. Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy
[Enemies]

I would rather be accused of breaking precedents than breaking promises.
John F. Kennedy
[Honesty]

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
John F. Kennedy
[Differences]

Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy

Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
John F. Kennedy

Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
John F. Kennedy

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.
John F. Kennedy
[Destiny]

So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.
John F. Kennedy
[Differences]

The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.
John F. Kennedy
[Americans]

The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
John F. Kennedy
[Excellence]

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
John F. Kennedy

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!’
John F. Kennedy
[Time]

The stories of past courage can define that ingredient-they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
John F. Kennedy
[Courage]

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
John F. Kennedy

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.
John F. Kennedy
[Risk]

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
John F. Kennedy

We believe that if men have the talent to invent need machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.
John F. Kennedy
[Talent]

We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain the future now.
John F. Kennedy
[The Future]

We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch.
John F. Kennedy
[Time]

We set sail on this new sea because there is knowledge to be gained.
John F. Kennedy

We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.
John F. Kennedy

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we’d been saying they were.
John F. Kennedy

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
John F. Kennedy, Amherst College, Oct 26, 1963 - Source JFK Library, Boston, Mass.
Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.
John F. Kennedy, Annual message to Congress on the State of the Union, January 30, 1961
[Government]

…probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.
John F. Kennedy, Describing a dinner for Nobel Prize winners, 1962

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962

And so, my fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, January 20, 1961
[Patriotism]

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961