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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.

John F. Kennedy

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John F. Kennedy
Age: 46 †
Born: 1917
Born: May 29
Died: 1963
Died: November 22
35Th U.S. President
Journalist
Military Officer
Politician
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Brookline
Massachusetts
Kennedy
Jack Kennedy
President Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
J. F. Kennedy
JFK
John Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Jack Kennedy
JF Kennedy
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The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardner objected that the tree was slow growing and wouldn't reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, In that case, there is no time to lose plant it this afternoon!
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Members of the Congress, the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, custodians of the American heritage. It is my task to report the State of the Union--to improve it is the task of us all.
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Our alliance is born, not of fear, but of hope. It is an alliance that advances what we are for, as well as opposes what we are against.
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The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.
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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act. I do not speak for my church on public matters - and the church does not speak for me.
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Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.
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Those [presidents] who were strongest intellectually were also strongest spiritually.
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Art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement. The artist... faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an offensive state.
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You have, at the same time, placed your confidence in me, and in my ability to render a free, fair judgment - to uphold the Constitution and my oath of office - and to reject any kind of religious pressure or obligation that might directly or indirectly interfere with my conduct of the Presidency in the national interest.
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Man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.
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I have seen in many places housing which has been developed under government influences, but I have never seen any projects in which governments have played their part which have fountains and statues and grass and trees, which are as important to the concept of the home as the roof itself.
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You're in there with me. Personally.
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