The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (250 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1917–63
We stand today on the edge of a new frontier.
speech accepting the Democratic nomination in Los Angeles, 15 July 1960
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
inaugural address, 20 January 1961
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
inaugural address, 20 January 1961
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
inaugural address, 20 January 1961
All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
inaugural address, 20 January 1961
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
inaugural address, 20 January 1961
There are no "white" or "coloured" signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.
Message to Congress on proposed Civil Rights Bill, 19 June 1963
Ich bin ein Berliner.I am a Berliner.
speech in West Berlin, 26 June 1963.
In free society art is not a weapon…Artists are not engineers of the soul.
speech at Amherst College, Mass., 26 October 1963
It was involuntary. They sank my boat.
on being asked how he became a war hero
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
A Thousand Days
(1965) ch. 4
1888–1969
We're going to sell Jack like soapflakes.
when his son John made his bid for the Presidency
John H. Davis
The Kennedy Clan
(1984) ch. 23
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
also attributed to Knute Rockne
J. H. Cutler
Honey Fitz
(1962)
1890–1995
Now Teddy must run.
to her daughter, on hearing of the assassination of Robert Kennedy
in
The Times
24 January 1995 (obituary); attributed, perhaps apocryphal
1891–1978
The African is conditioned, by the cultural and social institutions of centuries, to a freedom of which Europe has little conception, and it is not in his nature to accept serfdom forever. He realizes that he must fight unceasingly for his own emancipation; for without this he is doomed to remain the prey of rival imperialisms.
Facing Mount Kenya
(1938); conclusion
1922–69
The beat generation.
phrase coined in the course of a conversation; in
Playboy
June 1959
1923–
I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on.
The Snake Has All the Lines
(1958)
I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want—an adorable pancreas?
The Snake has all the Lines
(1958)