No one should ever sit in this office over 70 years old, and that I know.
The free world must not prove itself worthy of its own past.
Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?
I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.
If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.
I get weary of the European habit of taking our money, resenting any slight hint as to what they should do, and then assuming, in addition, full right to criticize us as bitterly as they may desire.
May the light of freedom, coming to all darkened lands, flame brightly – until at last the darkness is no more.
The true purpose of education is to prepare young men and women for effective citizenship in a free form of government.
I’m going to pass a law that no one can ask me my golf score.
If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.
The only answer to a regime that wages total cold war is to wage total peace.
Military power serves the cause of security by making prohibitive the cost of any aggressive attack. It serves the cause of peace by holding up a shield behind which the patient constructive work of peace can go on.
No man can always be right. So the struggle is to do one’s best, to keep the brain and conscience clear, never be swayed by unworthy motives or inconsequential reasons, but to strive to unearth the basic factors involved, then do one’s duty.
Take your job seriously, but not yourself.
It is well for us to pause, to acknowledge our debt to those who paid so large a share of freedom’s price.
You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.
These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.
No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.
There is one thing about being President – nobody can tell you when to sit down.
The final battle against intolerance is to be fought – not in the chambers of any legislature – but in the hearts of men.