John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, negotiated the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and initiated the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated in 1963.

Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate before becoming the 35th president in 1961. As president, Kennedy faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Below is a selected list of quotations by John F. Kennedy, (Note: Parenthetical numbers in the titles of presidential speeches and news conferences refer to item numbers in the Public Papers of the Presidents.) For more information please contact Kennedy.Library@nara.gov or 617.514.1629. Have a research question? Ask an Archivist!

“The leadership of the American Legion has not had a constructive thought for the benefit of this country since 1918.” (Spring, 1949, during House debate on housing bill to provide federal funds for slum clearance and low income public housing.  –James MacGregor Burns, John F. Kennedy: A Political Profile (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1960), p. 75.

25 Best John F Kennedy Quotes