(3089/898) Kennedy and King

181) If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural address (1/20/61) [B15]

182) Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural address (1/20/61) [B15]

183) Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need - not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' - a struggle against the common enemy of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural address (1/20/61) [B15]

184) And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

John F. Kennedy
Inaugural address (1/20/61) [OM]

185) Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

John F. Kennedy
Speech to United Nations General Assembly
(9/25/61) [B15]

186) We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speech in St. Louis (3/22/64) [B15]

187) Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strength to Love (1963) [CQ]

188) Now I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the people's injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Martin Luther King
Speech at Civil Rights March on Washington
(8/28/63) [OM]

189) Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've been to the mountain top. I won't mind. Like anybody I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But 'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Martin Luther King
Speech in Memphis (4/3/68)
[the day before King was assassinated] [B15]

190) 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
Supplementary State of the Union message to Congress
(5/25/61) [B15]

Sources

[B15] - Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th edition (1980)
[CQ] - The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993)
[OM] - The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations (1991)


Note: "3089/898" is the designation I've given to the project of posting all my collected quotes, excerpts and ideas (3089 of them) in the remaining days of the Bush administration (of which there were 898 left when I began).

As of today, there are 834 days remaining in the administration of the worst President ever.