John F. Kennedy Quotes About War

• Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  Address on first anniversary of Alliance for Progress, 13 Mar. 1962

  Report

• Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Strong

  Report

• Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, War, Power

  Report

• The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Military, War

  Report

• Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Fear

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

  Report

• A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

  John F. Kennedy

  Christian, Peace, War

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.163, Best Books on

  Report

• Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Workout, War

  Final Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 20 September 1963, New York, NY

  Report

• It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, War, Humanity

  Report

• Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation', a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Twilight, Struggle

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961. The words in quotation marks are from the Bible, Romans 12:12.

  Report

• Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable .. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Proliferation

  Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 25 September 1961

  Report

• War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, War, Presidential

  Report

• The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate... we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Strong, Hate

  Report

• The war against hunger is truly mankind's war of liberation.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Justice, Poverty

  Report

• I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, War, Mistake

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

  Report

• We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of a worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth - but neither shall we shrink from that risk any time it must be faced.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Risk, Victory

  Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation, delivered 22 October 1962

  Report

• The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Proliferation

  Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 25 September 1961

  Report

• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, War, Torches

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

  Report

• It was involuntary. They sank my boat.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, War, History

  Quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days (1965)

  Report

• We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, Truth, Philosophy

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.163, Best Books on

  Report

• My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us...step back from the shadow of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Journey, Land

  Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Address to the Nation, delivered 26 July 1963

  Report

• There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Issues, Europe

  1963 Address in Berlin's Rudolf Wilde Platz, 26 Jun, 22 months after the erection of the wall dividing the city.

  Report

• Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Needs, Inevitable

  American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963

  Report

• There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.

  John F. Kennedy

  Life, Country, War

  Report

• In a world of danger and trial, peace is our deepest aspiration, and when peace comes we will gladly convert not our swords into plowshares, but our bombs into peaceful reactors, and our planes into space vessels. "Pursue peace," the Bible tells us, and we shall pursue it with every effort and every energy that we possess. But it is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, War, Space

  Report

• So let us here resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not live, or die, in vain. Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And, as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.

  John F. Kennedy

  Peace, War, Blessing

  Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 25 September 1961

  Report

You May Also Like:

Jackie Kennedy

Robert Kennedy

Abraham Lincoln

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lyndon B. Johnson

Richard M. Nixon

Caroline Kennedy