John
F. Kennedy's Innaugural Address - This is a link to a video of
JFK's famous innaugural address.
Tab Through the Videos to see and hear various JFK speeches.
"Ich bin ein Berliner" (translation, "I am one with
Berlin:" or "I am a citizen of Berlin")
"I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine,
reckless, and provocative threat to world peace... He has an opportunity
now to move the world back from the abyss of destruction"
"All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will
it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration,
nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."
- JFK Innaugural Address, 1961
Liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without
liberty is always in vain.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable.
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.
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.
A child miseducated is a child lost.
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
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.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of
all.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save
the few who are rich.
A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we
are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we
are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we
will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest
appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
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.
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all
paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have
always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the
path of surrender, or submission.
Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort
of thought.
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One
brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis,
be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.
