John F. Kennedy: “All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people.”

For it is the fate of this generation--of you in the Congress and of me as President--to live with a struggle we did not start, in a world we did not make.

Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure.

But as an institution, it should have in the future, as it has had in the past since its inception, no stronger or more faithful member than the United States of America.

But today, were I to offer--after little more than a week in office--detailed legislation to remedy every national ill, the Congress would rightly wonder whether the desire for speed had replaced the duty of responsibility.