"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." – John F
Kennedy.
When JFK, the youngest man and first Roman Catholic to be elected President of
the USA, was killed on November 22 1963, barely past his first thousand days in
office, he also became the youngest President to die - aged 46.
Born in 1917 of Irish parentage, he graduated from Harvard in 1940 and entered
the Navy. He gained war hero status in 1943 when his boat was rammed and sunk by
a Japanese destroyer and Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors
through perilous waters to safety.
After the war he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area; and, in
1953, a Senator, the same year that he married Jacqueline Bouvier. While
recuperating from a back operation in 1955, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which
won the Pulitzer Prize in history.
Just failing to gain the Democratic nomination in 1956, he received the
nomination in 1960 and went on to win the Presidency by a narrow margin against
Richard Nixon.
During his presidency, Kennedy expressed modern, liberal and sometimes
idealistic views. His short term in office included the failed invasion of Cuba
and the resulting missile crisis, the founding of the Peace Corps program to
aide developing nations and spread American ideals, improvements in civil rights
and a commitment to space exploration.
More quotes from JFK:
Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem
of human destiny is beyond human beings.
For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit
this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's
futures, and we are all mortal.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe
for diversity.
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always
in vain.
So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to
our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be
resolved.
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things
were as bad as we'd been saying they were.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution
inevitable.
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of
truth.
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke
stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the
danger - but recognize the opportunity
This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.
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