(source)
|
John F. Kennedy
(29 May 1917 - 22 Nov 1963)
American president who was 35th President of the U.S. (1961-63). During his term, he had to deal with the situation of Russian offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba, discovered in Oct 1962. By 1963, a test ban treaty was established to slow the arms race. He was assassinated later that year.
|
Science Quotes by John F. Kennedy (14 quotes)
A Canadian newspaperman said yesterday that this is the President's 'Easter egghead roll on the White House lawn.' I want to deny that!
[Welcoming Nobel Prize winners as his guests at a White House dinner.]
[Welcoming Nobel Prize winners as his guests at a White House dinner.]
— John F. Kennedy
Remarks at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere (29 Apr 1962). From John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online].
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.
— John F. Kennedy
In a personal notebook (1945-46). Discussed in Hugh Rawson and Margaret Miner, The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations (2005), 201, as possibly being a very brief paraphrase of a verse by Robert Frost from 'The Wall' (1914) (See Robert Frost quotations page on this site). Elsewhere, it has been suggested to be a summary paraphrase of a much longer passage in G.K. Chesterton, The Thing (1929). (See G.K. Chesterton quotations on this site.) Meanwhile, many collections of quotations incorrectly attribute the short quote as worded above directly to either Robert Frost or G.K. Chesterton.
I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.
— John F. Kennedy
Address to Joint Session of Congress, on Urgent National Needs (25 May 1961). On web site of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Also in Vital Speeches of the Day (15 Jun 1961), Vol. 27, No. 17, 518-9.
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 future. And we are all mortal.
— John F. Kennedy
Commencement Address at American University, Washington, D.C. (Jun 1963). In Steven Cohen, Understanding Environmental Policy (2006), Preface, xi. Also on web site of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
In the years since man unlocked the power stored up within the atom, the world has made progress, halting, but effective, toward bringing that power under human control. The challenge may be our salvation. As we begin to master the destructive potentialities of modern science, we move toward a new era in which science can fulfill its creative promise and help bring into existence the happiest society the world has ever known.
— John F. Kennedy
'Science as a Guide of Public Policy', Address to the National Academy of Science, Washington D. C. (22 Oct 1963).
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.
— John F. Kennedy
Remarks upon presenting the NASA Distinguished Service Medal to astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, in the Flower Garden, at the White House, Washington, D.C. (21 May 1963). From John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online].
Science contributes to our culture in many ways, as a creative intellectual activity in its own right, as the light which has served to illuminate man's place in the universe, and as the source of understanding of man's own nature. 'Science as a Guide of Public Policy', Address to the National Academy of Science, Washington D. C. (22 Oct 1963).
— John F. Kennedy
Science And Society
The language of science is universal, and perhaps scientists have been the most international of all professions in their outlook... Every time you scientists make a major invention, we politicians have to invent a new institution to cope with it—and almost invariably, these days, it must be an international institution.
— John F. Kennedy
'Science as a Guide of Public Policy', Address to the National Academy of Science, Washington D. C. (22 Oct 1963).
The science of weapons and war has made us all one world and one human race with one common destiny.
— John F. Kennedy
Address Before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations, 20 Sep 1963. In Edward C. Luck, Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization, 1919-1999 (1999), 41.
The supreme reality of our time is…our common vulnerability on this planet.
— John F. Kennedy
Address Before Irish Parliament, Dublin (28 Jun 1963). In Arthur Meier Schlesinger, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (2002), 901.
The world is a very different one now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.
— John F. Kennedy
Inaugural address (1961). Robert G. Torricelli and Andrew Carroll, In Our Own words: Extraordinary Speeches of the American Century (1999), 222.
This is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
[Welcoming Nobel Prize winners as his guests at a White House dinner.]
[Welcoming Nobel Prize winners as his guests at a White House dinner.]
— John F. Kennedy
Remarks at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere (29 Apr 1962).
Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.
— John F. Kennedy
Letter to Monsignor Schieder regarding Catholic Youth Week. On web site of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.
— John F. Kennedy
Address at Rice University in Houston (12 Sep 1962). On web site of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Quotes by others about John F. Kennedy (1)
Scientists constantly get clobbered with the idea that we spent 27 billion dollars on the Apollo programs, and are asked “What more do you want?” We didn't spend it; it was done for political reasons. ... Apollo was a response to the Bay of Pigs fiasco and to the successful orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin. President Kennedy's objective was not to find out the origin of the moon by the end of the decade; rather it was to put a man on the moon and bring him back, and we did that.
Quoted by Dennis Meredith, in 'Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection and Extraterrestrial Life-Wish', Science Digest (Jun 1979), 85, 38 & 89. Reproduced in Carl Sagan and Tom Head, Conversations With Sagan (2006), 55-56.
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
