A Day I Will Never Forget
His life was cut short by an assassin
The day of his death is forever etched in my memory. It was a historic event of the type you recall where you were and what you were doing when it happened. In my lifetime it is as memorable as the first moon landing, 9/11, and when my first wife died in 2004.
At the time we lived in San Diego. I was in the fourth grade at Perry Elementary School, and recall a teacher coming into the classroom crying, saying the president had been shot. It was Friday morning around 11:00 a.m. The entire school closed.
I will never forget watching the funeral procession on television and the eerie beat of the drums. It was a sad time for most every American. As we traveled the world in the years that followed, landing in Malta in the late 60s. I was amazed at how revered he was even there. His legacy reached the entire world it seemed. They had built a beautiful monument in remembrance of him in this tiny corner of the world. We were proud to live there as Americans.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy fondly known and remembered by many as JFK or Jack Kennedy was born in Massachusetts on May 29, 1917. While serving our country as its 35th President, he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at the young age of 46 years old. He saw the country through the difficult times of the strained relations with Russia and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I still recall the duck and cover drills in school, diving under our desks in case of a nuclear attack (although I doubt it would have helped very much!)
Following are some of my favorite quotes from this memorable man. I have attempted to group them by subject for quick and easy reference.
Success
“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
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“Life is never easy. There is work to be done and obligations to be met — obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty.”
“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men.”
“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
War and Peace
“It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.”
“Mankind must put an end to war — or war will put an end to mankind.”
“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.”
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“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it.”
“We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last.”
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“World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor — it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.”
“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.”
“When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
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“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!”
“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’”
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“The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.”
“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”
“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
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“Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes…can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.”
“Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.”
“The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.”
Enemies
“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.”
“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
The Nation
“In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.”
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”
“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”
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“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For 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.”
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
“The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital… the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.”
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“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all — except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
“In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.”
Education and Knowledge
“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”
“The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.”
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“I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House — with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
The Future
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
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“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”
“We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.”
Leadership
“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.”
“We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.”
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
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“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”
“The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.”
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
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“If not us, who? If not now, when?”
“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”
“I’m an idealist without illusions.”
Wisdom
“Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
“Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.”“We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.”
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“The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.”
“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.”
“We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.”
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“Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.”
“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.”
There are volumes of resources in the form of books and online about Kennedy. If you found his wisdom of interest, his life is well-worth studying. You will find much positive, some negative, as well as a good deal of controversy surrounding his life and death.
I leave you with one of his most thoughtful and profound quotes and challenge you to take it to heart.
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”
Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION.
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