John F. Kennedy: “For we cannot for long lead the cause of peace and freedom, if we ever cease to set the pace here at home.”

All of us together--this Administration, this Congress, this nation--must forge those answers.

Members of the Congress: The United States did not rise to greatness by waiting for others to lead.

Our instrument and our hope is the United Nations--and I see little merit in the impatience of those who would abandon this imperfect world instrument because they dislike our imperfect world.

I shall neither shift the burden of executive decisions to the Congress, nor avoid responsibility for the outcome of those decisions.