John Fitzgerald Kennedy citáty

page 14

„Musíme si nájsť čas na to, aby sme sa zastavili a poďakovali ľuďom za to, že urobili hoci i len malý rozdiel v našich životoch.“

„Tí, ktorí sa odvážia zlyhať, môžu dosiahnuť veľké úspechy.“

„Zmena je pravidlo života. Tí, ktorí sa pozerajú iba na minulosť a prítomnosť, s istotou minú budúcnosť.“

„Keď vyjadrujeme svoju vďačnosť, nesmieme nikdy zabudnúť, že najvyšším ocenením nie je vyjadrovať slová, ale žiť podľa nich.“

„Tí, ktorí znemožnia mierovú revolúciu, pričinia sa k nevyhnutnosti násilnej revolúcie.“

„Ten, kto zabúda na svoju minulosť, nemá ani budúcnosť.“

„Deti sú najcennejším zdrojom na svete a jeho najlepšou nádejou do budúcnosti.“

„Čo je na prvej láske najpôvabnejšie? Že málokedy končí sobášom.“

„Človek robí, čo musí - napriek dôsledkom svojho konania, napriek prekážkam, nebezpečenstvám a ťažkostiam - v tom spočíva základ celej morálky.“

„Dôvtipný muž musí byť tak chytrý, aby rozostaval na vhodné miesta ľudí, ktorí sú omnoho chytrejší než on.“

„Nechceme znevažovať odvahu, s akou ľudia umierajú, no nemali by sme zabúdať na skutky odvahy, s ktorou ľudia… žijú. Životná odvaha zväčša nebýva taká dramatická ako odvaha poslednej chvíle; napriek tomu nie je o nič menej veľkolepou spleťou triumfu a tragédie. Človek robí, čo treba - navzdory dosahu na svoj osobný život, napriek prekážkam, nebezpečenstvám a tlaku a práve v tom je základ celej ľudskej morálky…“

„Čas pre nás musí byť nástrojom, nie výhovorkou.“

„Keď slobodná krajina nedokáže pomôcť tým, ktorí sú chudobní, nemôže zachrániť tú hŕstku bohatých.“

„Mám pekný domov, kancelária je blízko a plat je dobrý.“

„Buďme pánmi, nie obeťami našich dejín, riaďme svoj osud bez toho, aby sme podľahli slepým podozreniam a emóciám.“

„Číňania na napísanie slova „kríza“ používajú dva ťahy štetcom. Prvý ťah predstavuje nebezpečenstvo; druhý možnosť. Ak sa ocitnete v kríze, uvedomte si nebezpečenstvo - ale rozpoznajte aj príležitosť.“

„Po druhé, čo vyžaduje spravodlivosť? Na konci si aj tak vždy vyžaduje slobodu.“

„NAURO ISL ... PRÍKAZOVATEĽ PRÍRODNÉ VEDIE MOŽNÉ, ŽE MÔŽE PILOTOVAŤ… 11 ŽIVÝ POTREBNÝ MALÝ LOD“

„Keď sú ohrozené práva jedného, sú oslabené práva každých.“

„Čas na opravu strechy je vtedy, keď svieti slnko.“

„Čím väčšie sú naše vedomosti, tým väčšia je naša ignorancia.“

„V čínštine sa slovo "kríza" skladá z dvoch znakov. Jeden predstavuje nebezpečenstvo a druhý príležitosť.“

“For a city or a people to be truly free they must have the secure right, without economic, political or police pressure, to make their own choice and to live their own lives.”

“In short, both at home and abroad, there may now be a temptation to relax. For the road has been long, the burden heavy, and the pace consistently urgent. But we cannot be satisfied to rest here. This is the side of the hill, not the top. The mere absence of war is not peace. The mere absence of recession is not growth. We have made a beginning — but we have only begun. Now the time has come to make the most of our gains”

“I must say that though other days may not be so bright, as we look toward the future, that the brightest days will continue to be those we spent with you here in Ireland.”

“Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty and illiteracy and disease. Self-determination is but a slogan if the future holds no hope.”

“Privilege is here, and with privilege goes responsibility.”

“The great struggle in the world today is not one of popularity but one of power, and our power depends in considerable measure upon our ability to influence other nations, upon their willingness to associate themselves with our efforts, upon the strength of our stature and leadership. … this deterioration in our prestige abroad threatens our bases, our alliances, our security and the peace itself and it is time we were respected once again throughout the would as the good neighbor.”

“Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.”

“There's a plot in this country to enslave every man, woman, and child. Before I leave this high and noble office, I intend to expose this plot. - President John F. Kennedy 7 days before his assassination”

“The scholar, the teacher, the intellectual, have a higher duty than any of the others, for society has trained you to think as well as do.”

“This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.”

“I have said that control of arms is a mission that we undertake particularly for our children and our grandchildren and that they have no lobby in Washington.”

“All students, members of the faculty, and public officials in both Mississippi and the Nation will be able, it is hoped, to return to their normal activities with full confidence in the integrity of American law. This is as it should be, for our Nation is founded on the principle that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny. The law which we obey includes the final rulings of the courts, as well as the enactments of our legislative bodies. Even among law-abiding men few laws are universally loved, but they are uniformly respected and not resisted. Americans are free, in short, to disagree with the law but not to disobey it. For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, and no mob however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law. If this country should ever reach the point where any man or group of men by force or threat of force could long defy the commands of our court and our Constitution, then no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ, and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors.”

“The peace-keeping machinery of the United Nations cannot work without the help of the smaller nations, nations whose forces threaten no one and whose forces can thus help create a world in which no nation is threatened. Great powers have their responsibilities and their burdens, but the smaller nations of the world must fulfill their obligations as well.”

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”

“If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.”

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

“World order will be secured only when the whole world has laid down these weapons which seem to offer us present security but threaten the future survival of the human race. That armistice day seems very far away. The vast resources of this planet are being devoted more and more to the means of destroying, instead of enriching, human life.
But the world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution. Nor has mankind survived the tests and trials of thousands of years to surrender everything — including its existence — now. This Nation has the will and the faith to make a supreme effort to break the log jam on disarmament and nuclear tests — and we will persist until we prevail, until the rule of law has replaced the ever dangerous use of force.”

“Communism has sometimes succeeded as a scavenger, but never as a leader. It has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.”

“Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.”

“I hope that all of you who are students here will recognize the great opportunity that lies before you in this decade, and in the decades to come, to be of service to our country. The Greeks once defined happiness as full use of your powers along lines of excellence, and I can assure you that there is no area of life where you will have an opportunity to use whatever powers you have, and to use them along more excellent lines, bringing ultimately, I think, happiness to you and those whom you serve.”

“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.”

“I ask particularly that those of you who are now in school will prepare yourselves to bear the burden of leadership over the next 40 years here in the United States, and make sure that the United States — which I believe almost alone has maintained watch and ward for freedom — that the United States meet its responsibility. That is a wonderful challenge for us as a people.”

“We live under majority rule and if that majority is not well educated in its responsibilities, the whole Nation suffers.”

“In this administration also it has been necessary at times to issue specific warnings — warnings that we could not stand by and watch the Communists conquer Laos by force, or intervene in the Congo, or swallow West Berlin, or maintain offensive missiles on Cuba. But while our goals were at least temporarily obtained in these and other instances, our successful defense of freedom was due not to the words we used, but to the strength we stood ready to use on behalf of the principles we stand ready to defend. This strength is composed of many different elements, ranging from the most massive deterrents to the most subtle influences. And all types of strength are needed — no one kind could do the job alone.”

“Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause — united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future — and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.”

“With all of the history of war, and the human race's history unfortunately has been a good deal more war than peace, with nuclear weapons distributed all through the world, and available, and the strong reluctance of any people to accept defeat, I see the possibility in the 1970's of the President of the United States having to face a world in which 15 or 20 or 25 nations may have these weapons.”

“Today some would say that those struggles are all over — that all the horizons have been explored — that all the battles have been won — that there is no longer an American frontier. But I trust that no one in this vast assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won — and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier — the frontier of the 1960's — a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils — a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.”

“And lastly, Chairman Khrushchev has compared the United States to a worn-out runner living on its past performance, and stated that the Soviet Union would out-produce the United States by 1970. Without wishing to trade hyperbole with the Chairman, I do suggest that he reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he his caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas.”

“Too often in the past, we have thought of the artist as an idler and dilettante and of the lover of arts as somehow sissy and effete. We have done both an injustice. The life of the artist is, in relation to his work, stern and lonely. He has labored hard, often amid deprivation, to perfect his skill. He has turned aside from quick success in order to strip his vision of everything secondary or cheapening. His working life is marked by intense application and intense discipline.”