The Wisdom of JFK.
"And so, my fellow Americans,
ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country."
"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences,
in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures –
and that is the basis of all human morality."
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or present
are certain to miss the future.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible
will make violent revolution inevitable.
I look forward to a great future for America –
a future in which our country will match its military strength
with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.
Mankind must put an end to war
before war puts an end to mankind.
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector
enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs.
Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved
by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote
by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation.
It is not relevant.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor,
it cannot save the few who are rich.
If the United States ever experiences an attempt at a coup to
overthrow the government
it will come from the C.I.A.”
JFK, 1963.
No comments:
Post a Comment