John Fitzgerald Kennedy citáty

page 8

„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.“

“I think it is most appropriate that the President of the United States, whose business place is in Washington, should come to this city and participate in these rallies. Because the business of the Government is the business of the people”

“So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation’s future is at stake.”

“We have a right to expect that the Negro community will be responsible, will uphold the law, but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair, that the Constitution will be color blind, as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century.”

“While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both.”

“Many Americans make the mistake of assuming that space research has no values here on earth. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as the wartime development of radar gave us the transistor, and all that it made possible, so research in space medicine holds the promise of substantial benefit for those of us who are earthbound. For our effort in space is not as some have suggested, a competitor for the natural resources that we need to develop the earth. It is a working partner and a coproducer of these resources. And nothing makes this clearer than the fact that medicine in space is going to make our lives healthier and happier here on earth.”

“For the road to world peace and freedom is still long, and there are burdens which only full partners can share — in supporting the common defense, in expanding world trade, in aligning our balance of payments, in aiding the emergent nations, in concerting political and economic policies, and in welcoming to our common effort other industrialized nations, notably Japan, whose remarkable economic and political development of the 1950's permits it now to play on the world scene a major constructive role.”

“Prince Bismarck once said that one-third of the students of German universities broke down from overwork; another third broke down from dissipation, and the other third ruled Germany.”

“Only the very courageous will be able to keep alive the spirit of individualism and dissent which gave birth to this nation, nourished it as an infant, and carried it through its severest tests upon the attainment of its maturity.”

“In our discussions and exchanges on Berlin and other international questions, the one thing that has most concerned me has been the possibility that your Government would not correctly understand the will and determination of the United States in any given situation, since I have not assumed that you or any other sane man would, in this nuclear age, deliberately plunge the world into war which it is crystal clear no country could win and which could only result in catastrophic consequences to the whole world, including the aggressor.”

“Civilization, it was once said, is a race between education and catastrophe — and we intend to win that race for education.”

“This Nation has tossed its cap over the wall of space, and we have no choice but to follow it. Whatever the difficulties, they will be overcome. Whatever the hazards, they must be guarded against. With the vital”

“The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough — more than enough — of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on — not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.”

“The voters selected us, in short, because they had confidence in our judgement and our ability to exercise that judgement from a position where we could determine what were their own best interest, as a part of the nation's interest.”

“What we seek to advance, what we seek to develop in all of our colleges and universities, are educated men and women who can bear the burdens of responsible citizenship, who can make judgments about life as it is, and as it must be, and encourage the people to make those decisions which can bring not only prosperity and security, but happiness to the people of the United Sates and those who depend upon it.”

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

“This is not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection, and I certainly will come back in the springtime”

“I have a nice home, the office is close by, and the pay is good.”

“At our meeting in Vienna and subsequently, I expressed our readiness and desire to find, through peaceful negotiation, a solution to any and all problems that divide us. At the same time. I made clear that in view of the objectives of the ideology to which you adhere, the United States could not tolerate any action on your part which in a major way disturbed the existing over-all balance of power in the world. I stated that an attempt to force abandonment of our responsibilities and commitments in Berlin would constitute such an action and that the United States would resist with all the power at its command.”

“New efforts are needed if this Assembly's Declaration of Human Rights, now 15 years old, is to have full meaning. And new means should be found for promoting the free expression and trade of ideas — through travel and communication, and through increased exchanges of people, and books, and broadcasts. For as the world renounces the competition of weapons, competition in ideas must flourish — and that competition must be as full and as fair as possible.”

“To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom — and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”

“We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will "talk sense to the American people". But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this Nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.”

“It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal. It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, 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. But this is not the case.”

“I think when we talk about corporal punishment, and we have to think about our own children, and we are rather reluctant, it seems to me, to have other people administering punishment to our own children, because we are reluctant, it puts a special obligation on us to maintain order and to send children out from our homes who accept the idea of discipline. So I would not be for corporal punishment in the school, but I would be for very strong discipline at home so we don't place an unfair burden on our teachers.”

“Moreover, the Congress adopted a resolution expressing its support of this declared policy. Despite this, the rapid development of long-range missile bases and other offensive weapons systems in Cuba has proceeded. I must tell you that the United States is determined that this threat to the security of this hemisphere be removed. At the same time, I wish to point out that the action we are taking is the minimum necessary to remove the threat to the security of the nations of this hemisphere. The fact of this minimum response should not be taken as a basis, however, for any misjudgment on your part.”

“No country can possibly move ahead, no free society can possibly be sustained, unless it has an educated citizenry whose qualities of mind and heart permit it to take part in the complicated and increasingly sophisticated decisions that pour not only upon the President and upon the Congress, but upon all the citizens who exercise the ultimate power…Quite obviously, there is a higher purpose, and that is the hope that you will turn to the service of the State the scholarship, the education, the qualities which society has helped develop in you; that you will render on the community level, or on the state level, or on the national level, or render on the community level, or on the state level, or on the national level, or the international level a contribution to the maintenance of freedom and peace and the security of our country and those associated with it in a most critical time.”

“Yesterday a shaft of light cut into the darkness. Negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. For the first time, an agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear destruction under international control-a goal first sought in 1946 when Bernard Baruch presented a comprehensive control plan to the United Nations.”

“Finally, it should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future. Only an America which has fully educated its citizens is fully capable of tackling the complex problems and perceiving the hidden dangers of the world in which we live. And only an America which is growing and prospering economically can sustain the worldwide defenses of freedom, while demonstrating to all concerned the opportunities of our system and society.”

“There are those who regard this history of past strife and exile as better forgotten. But, to use the phrase of Yeats, let us not casually reduce "that great past to a trouble of fools." For we need not feel the bitterness of the past to discover its meaning for the present and the future.”

“We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.”