Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation (33 page)

A gift to President Kennedy from E. E. Mizerek. The text of his inaugural address is bordered by the seals of the 50 states.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

JOHN AND JACKIE KENNEDY: SOME FAMOUS AND INTERESTING WORDS

John Kennedy

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.…

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

The best road to progress is freedom’s road.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon; it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.