Frasi di John Fitzgerald Kennedy pagina 9

“I diritti di ogni uomo diminuiscono quando questi vengono minacciati.”

Origine: Citato in Gino e Michele, Matteo Molinari, Le Formiche: anno terzo, Zelig Editore, 1995, § 1953.

Questa traduzione è in attesa di revisione. È corretto?

“Non chiedete cosa possa fare il paese per voi: chiedete cosa potete fare voi per il paese.”

“Un uomo fa ciò che è suo dovere fare, quali che siano le conseguenze personali, quali che siano gli ostacoli, i pericoli o le pressioni. Questa è la base di tutta la moralità umana.”

dal discorso inaugurale del proprio mandato, 20 gennaio 1961

“Dunque non concentriamoci solo sulle nostre differenze, ma pensiamo anche ai nostri interessi comuni e a come superare tali differenze. E se le nostre divergenze non possono essere risolte oggi, almeno possiamo cercare di rendere il mondo un luogo sicuro per le diversità. Perché, in fin dei conti, il nostro più elementare legame è che tutti noi abitiamo questo piccolo pianeta, respiriamo la stessa aria, ci preoccupiamo per il futuro dei nostri figli, e siamo tutti mortali.”

Citazioni in lingua originale

“Signore e signori, la parola "segretezza" è ripugnante in una società libera e aperta e noi, come popolo, ci siamo opposti, intrinsecamente e storicamente, alle società segrete, ai giuramenti segreti e alle riunioni segrete. Siamo di fronte, in tutto il mondo, ad una cospirazione monolitica e spietata, basata soprattutto su mezzi segreti per espandere la sua sfera d'influenza, sull'infiltrazione anziché sull'invasione, sulla sovversione anziché sulle elezioni, sull'intimidazione anziché sulla libera scelta. È un sistema che ha reclutato ampie risorse umane e materiali nella costruzione di una macchina affiatata, altamente efficiente, che combina operazioni militari, diplomatiche, di intelligence, economiche, scientifiche e politiche. Le sue azioni non vengono diffuse, ma tenute segrete. I suoi errori non vengono messi in evidenza, ma vengono nascosti. I suoi dissidenti non sono elogiati, ma ridotti al silenzio. Nessuna spesa viene contestata. Nessun segreto viene rivelato. Ecco perché il legislatore ateniese Solone decretò che evitare le controversie fosse un crimine per ogni cittadino. Sto chiedendo il vostro aiuto nel difficilissimo compito di informare e allertare il popolo americano. Sono convinto che con il vostro aiuto l'uomo diventerà ciò che per cui è nato: un essere libero e indipendente.”

dal discorso http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Commencement-Address-at-American-University-June-10-1963.aspx alla American University, 10 giugno 1963

“Siamo legati all'oceano. E quando torniamo al mare, sia per navigarci che per guardarlo, torniamo da dove siamo venuti.”

dal discorso http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/The-President-and-the-Press-Address-before-the-American-Newspaper-Publishers-Association.aspx presso l'Hotel Waldorf-Astoria di New York, 27 aprile 1961

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Frasi e Citazioni

“Adesso sì che posso ritirarmi dalla politica, dopo che una ragazza dolce e pura come Marilyn Monroe mi ha augurato buon compleanno!”

Citazioni in lingua originale

“La vittoria ha moltissimi padri, la sconfitta è orfana.”

19 maggio 1962; citato in Marilyn, p. 369

“Scegliamo di andare sulla Luna in questo decennio e di fare ancora altre cose, non perché sono [sfide] facili, ma perché sono difficili.”

Origine: Citato in Dizionario mondiale di Storia, Rizzoli Larousse, Milano, 2003, p. 656. ISBN 88-525-0077-4

“Il grande nemico della verità molto spesso non è la menzogna: deliberata, creata ad arte e disonesta; quanto il mito: persistente, persuasivo ed irrealistico.”

dal discorso alla Rice University, 12 settembre 1962

“La guerra non ci si propone più come un'alternativa razionale.”

Citazioni in lingua originale

dal messaggio all'ONU del 25 settembre 1961

“Io sono un berlinese.”

“La mia prima impressione [al suo arrivo in Francia ancora da studente universitario] è questa: mentre i francesi amano tutti Roosevelt, un tipo di governo alla Roosevelt non potrebbe avere successo in un paese come la Francia, che sembra mancare della capacità di guardare ad un problema nel suo complesso. Non amano Blum perché prende i loro soldi e li dà agli altri: cosa che per un francese è très mauvaise.”

Citazioni in lingua originale

“Quando il potere porta l'uomo verso l'arroganza, la poesia gli ricorda i suoi limiti. Quando il potere restringe la sfera di interesse dell'uomo, la poesia gli ricorda la ricchezza e la diversità dell'esistenza. Quando il potere corrompe, la poesia rigenera.”

citato in Arthur Schlesinger Jr., I mille giorni di John F. Kennedy, p. 101

“Mio padre [Joseph P. Kennedy] mi ha detto che tutti gli uomini di affari sono figli di puttana.”

“Aldilà di questa frontiera si estendono i domini inesplorati della scienza e dello spazio, dei problemi risolti della pace e della guerra, delle sacche di ignoranza e di pregiudizi non ancora debellate.”

citato in Edward Klein, La maledizione dei Kennedy, p. 64

“C'è molta gente nel mondo che davvero non capisce, o dice di non capire, dove sia la vera differenza tra il mondo libero ed il mondo comunista. Li si faccia venire a Berlino. Ci sono molti a dire che il comunismo è l'onda del futuro. Li si faccia venire a Berlino. E ci sono alcuni che dicono che in Europa e ovunque noi potremmo lavorare insieme con i comunisti. Li si faccia venire a Berlino. E ci sono perfino alcuni che dicono che il comunismo è un sistema malvagio ma ci permette di fare progressi economici. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Li si faccia venire a Berlino.”

Origine: Citato in Giovanni Sabbatucci e Vittorio Vidotto, <nowiki></nowiki>Il mondo contemporaneo. Dal 1848 a oggi<nowiki></nowiki>, Editori Laterza, Roma, 2008, <nowiki>ISBN 978-88-420-8741-0</nowiki>, pag. 542

“Il conformismo è il carceriere della libertà e il nemico dello sviluppo.”

dal discorso http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-at-the-Rudolph-Wilde-Platz-June-26-1963.aspx a Berlino Ovest, 26 giugno 1963

“Io sono un idealista senza illusioni.”

dal messaggio all'ONU http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Address-Before-the-General-Assembly-of-the-United-Nations-September-25-1961.aspx del 25 settembre 1961

“L'umanità deve porre fine alla guerra, o la guerra porrà fine all'umanità.”

Origine: Citato in Enzo Biagi, Buoni cattivi: esiste ancora una morale valida per tutti?, BUR, Milano, 1991, p. 15. ISBN 88-17-11549-5

“L'uomo è ancora il più straordinario dei computer.”

dal messaggio all'ONU del 25 settembre 1961

“So che abbiamo tutti un debito con il nostro grande amico Frank Sinatra. Prima ancora di cantare, raccoglieva voti per i democratici in un distretto elettorale del New Jersey. Quel distretto è cresciuto fino a diventare una nazione… e quando smetterà di cantare, continuerà a parlare in favore del partito democratico, e io lo ringrazio a nome di tutti i presenti.”

da un discorso del 21 maggio 1963

“Se una libera società non può aiutare i molti che sono poveri, non dovrebbe salvare i pochi che sono ricchi.”

citato in Guida completa a Frank Sinatra

“Gli statisti sono responsabili dei loro errori soltanto nel settore in cui sono preposti, cioè quello del governo, e non vanno giudicati responsabili della nazione nel suo complesso. […] Una delle manchevolezze della democrazia, è di cercare capri espiatori per la sua debolezza.”

Citazioni in lingua originale

“Sono giunto alla conclusione che il fascismo è fatto per la Germania e l'Italia, il comunismo per la Russia e la democrazia per l'America e l'Inghilterra.”

dalla tesi di laurea di Kennedy, pubblicata come saggio dal titolo Why England Slept nel 1940; citato in Arthur Schlesinger Jr., I mille giorni di John F. Kennedy, p. 105

“Non voglio la capote sulla macchina, tutte la texane devono vedere che bella ragazza è Jackie.”

dal diario tenuto durante il suo soggiorno in Europa nel 1938, citato in Arthur Schlesinger Jr., I mille giorni di John F. Kennedy, p. 102

“Le migliori manovre strategiche avvengono sempre per caso.”

Origine: Detto al suo collaboratore più stretto, Kenneth O'Donnell, a proposito della sua visita alla città texana di Dallas, che avrebbe avuto luogo di lì a due giorni. Citato in Edward Klein, La maledizione dei Kennedy, p. 183.

“Mia madre era sempre o in una casa di moda parigina o inginocchiata dinnanzi ad un altare. […] Quando avevamo veramente bisogno di lei, non c'era mai […] Mia madre non mi ha mai stretto a sé, né mi ha mai coccolato. Mai, mai!”

citato in Arthur Schlesinger Jr., I mille giorni di John F. Kennedy, p. 93

“è stata molto generosa, ma noi non abbiamo perso la nostra potenza economica e la nostra influenza su quei paesi. Non crediate che gli europei facciano qualcosa per noi checché gli Stati Uniti abbiano fatto per loro. Sarà dunque necessario che i nostri rappresentanti difendano con molta forza interessi americani.”

Citato in Edward Klein, La maledizione dei Kennedy, p. 31

“Non dobbiamo mai negoziare per paura, ma non dobbiamo mai aver paura di negoziare.”

“Cuba non deve essere abbandonata ai comunisti.”

“Questo paese non può permettersi di essere materialmente ricco e spiritualmente povero.”

citato in AA.VV., Il libro della storia, traduzione di Roberto Sorgo, Gribaudo, 2018, p. 315. ISBN 9788858016572

Questa traduzione è in attesa di revisione. È corretto?

“We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy: Frasi in inglese

“…what really counts is not the immediate act of courage or of valor, but those who bear the struggle day in and day out — not the sunshine patriots but those who are willing to stand for a long period of time.”

1962, Rice University speech

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

"Remarks at the White House to Members of the American Legion (70)" (1 March 1962) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx 1962

“According to the ancient Chinese proverb, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us, if we can, step back from the shadows of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.”

1961, Inaugural Address

“But the harsh fact of the matter is that there is also an increasingly large number of young Americans who are neglecting their bodies — whose physical fitness is not what it should be — who are getting soft. And such softness on the part of individual citizens can help to strip and destroy the vitality of a nation. For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of America's most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it to dwindle and grow soft then we will destroy much of our ability to meet the great and vital challenges which confront our people. We will be unable to realize our full potential as a nation.”

1963, Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty speech

“Our prestige abroad, what other peoples think of us, is not of importance only to those Americans who work or travel abroad. The sign "Yankee go home" does not apply only to our diplomats, foreign-aid specialists, and military personnel who are stationed overseas.”

1960, Sport at the New Frontier: The Soft American

“I urge all of you today, especially those who are students, to act, to enter the lists of public service and rightly win or lose the prize. For we can have only one form of aristocracy in this country, as Jefferson wrote long ago in rejecting John Adams' suggestion of an artificial aristocracy of wealth and birth. It is, he wrote, the natural aristocracy of character and talent, and the best form of government, he added, was that which selected these men for positions of responsibility.”

1960, Speech at East Los Angeles College Stadium, Los Angeles, California

“But as long as we know what comprises our vital interests and our long-range goals, we have nothing to fear from negotiations at the appropriate time, and nothing to gain by refusing to take part in them. At a time when a single clash could escalate overnight into a holocaust of mushroom clouds, a great power does not prove its firmness by leaving the task of exploring the other's intentions to sentries or those without full responsibility. Nor can ultimate weapons rightfully be employed, or the ultimate sacrifice rightfully demanded of our citizens, until every reasonable solution has been explored. "How many wars," Winston Churchill has written, "have been averted by patience and persisting good will! …. How many wars have been precipitated by firebrands!"”

1963, Address at Vanderbilt University

“I would not look with favor upon a President working to subvert the first amendment's guarantees of religious liberty. Nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do so — and neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test — even by indirection — for it. If they disagree with that safeguard they should be out openly working to repeal it.”

1961, Address at the University of Washington

“We have become more and more not a nation of athletes but a nation of spectators.”

1960, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association

“A copy of the statement I am making tonight concerning developments in Cuba and the reaction of my Government thereto has been handed to your Ambassador in Washington. In view of the gravity of the developments to which I refer, I want you to know immediately and accurately the position of my Government in this matter.”

"Remarks at National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Banquet (496)," December 5 1961. Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1961. http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx 1961

“He knows that law is the adhesive force in the cement of society, creating order out of chaos and coherence in place of anarchy. He knows that for one man to defy a law or court order he does not like is to invite others to defy those which they do not like, leading to a breakdown of all justice and all order. He knows, too, that every fellowman is entitled to be regarded with decency and treated with dignity. Any educated citizen who seeks to subvert the law, to suppress freedom, or to subject other human beings to acts that are less than human, degrades his heritage, ignores his learning, and betrays his obligation.”

1962, First letter to Nikita Khrushchev

“Now, in the thermonuclear age, any misjudgment on either side about the intentions of the other could rain more devastation in several hours than has been wrought in all the wars of human history.”

1963, Address at Vanderbilt University

“Members of the Congress, the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, custodians of the American heritage. It is my task to report the State of the Union — to improve it is the task of us all.”

1961, Berlin Crisis speech

“Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”

1962, Second State of the Union Address

“We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?”

At the signing of a charter establishing the German Peace Corps, Bonn, West Germany (24 June 1963);

Origine: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum] President Kennedy got his facts wrong. Dante never made this statement. The closest to what President Kennedy meant is in the Inferno where the souls in the ante-room of hell, who "lived without disgrace and without praise," and the coward angels, who did not rebel but did not resist the cohorts of Lucifer, are condemned to being whirled through the air by great winds while being stung by wasps and horseflies. Dante placed those who "non furon ribelli né fur fedeli" — were neither for nor against God, in a special region near the mouth of Hell; the lowest part of Hell, a lake of ice, was for traitors.
Origine: https://web.archive.org/web/20201213100425/https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/life-of-john-f-kennedy/fast-facts-john-f-kennedy/john-f-kennedys-favorite-quotations-dantes-inferno According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in the undated article "John F. Kennedy's Favorite Quotations: Dante's Inferno"
President Kennedy's quote was based upon an interpretation of Dante's Inferno. As Robert Kennedy explained in 1964, "President Kennedy's favorite quote was really from Dante, 'The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.'" This supposed quotation is not actually in Dante's work, but is based upon a similar one. In the Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil, on their way to Hell, pass by a group of dead souls outside the entrance to Hell. These individuals, when alive, remained neutral at a time of great moral decision. Virgil explains to Dante that these souls cannot enter either Heaven or Hell because they did not choose one side or another. They are therefore worse than the greatest sinners in Hell because they are repugnant to both God and Satan alike, and have been left to mourn their fate as insignificant beings neither hailed nor cursed in life or death, endlessly travailing below Heaven but outside of Hell. This scene occurs in the third canto of the Inferno.
Origine: http://www.bartleby.com/73/1211.html According to Bartleby.com
Kennedy's remark may have been inspired by the passage from Dante Alighieri’s La Comedia Divina “Inferno,” canto 3, lines 35–42 (1972) passage as translated by Geoffrey L. Bickersteth: "by those disbodied wretches who were loth when living, to be either blamed or praised. [...] Fear to lose beauty caused the heavens to expel these caitiffs; nor, lest to the damned they theng ave cause to boast, receives them the deep hell." A more modern-sounding translation from the foregoing Dante’s Inferno passage was translataed 1971 by Mark Musa thus: “They are mixed with that repulsive choir of angels … undecided in neutrality. Heaven, to keep its beauty, cast them out, but even Hell itself would not receive them for fear the wicked there might glory over them.”

“Secondly, what does justice require? In the end, it requires liberty.”

1963, Civil Rights Address

“For we seek not the worldwide victory of one nation or system but a worldwide victory of man. The modern globe is too small, its weapons are too destructive, and its disorders are too contagious to permit any other kind of victory.”

1963, Address at the Free University of Berlin

“I come here today…not just because you are doing well and because you are outstanding students, but because we expect something of you. And unless in this free country of ours we are able to demonstrate that we are able to make this society work and progress, unless we can hope that from you we are going to get back all of the talents which society has helped develop in you, then, quite obviously, all the hopes of all of us that freedom will not only endure but prevail, of course, will be disappointed. So we ask the best of you…I congratulate you on what you have done, and most of all I congratulate you on what you are going to do.”

1963, Third State of the Union Address

“If you will give your representative similar instructions, there is no reason why we should not be able to complete these arrangements and announce them to the world within a couple of days. The effect of such a settlement on easing world tensions would enable us to work toward a more general arrangement regarding "other armaments," as proposed in your second letter which you made public. I would like to say again that the United States is very much interested in reducing tensions and halting the arms race; and if your letter signifies that you are prepared to discuss a detente affecting NATO and the Warsaw Pact, we are quite prepared to consider with our allies any useful proposals.”

Origine: "Remarks in New York City to the National Convention of the Catholic Youth Organization (463)," (15 November 1963) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx

“A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”

1962, Second Letter to Nikita Khrushchev

“The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people — faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but will also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment — faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor, and ultimately recognize right.”

Robert F. Kennedy, in a speech in the US Senate (9 May 1966)
Misattributed

“Freedom is not merely a word or an abstract theory, but the most effective instrument for advancing the welfare of man.”

1964 Memorial Edition, p. 264 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations/Profiles-in-Courage-quotations.aspx Pre-1960, Profiles in Courage (1956)

“If all of you had voted the other way — there's about 5500 of you here tonight — I would not be the President of the United States.”

Message to the Inter-American Economic and Social Conference at Punta del Este, Uruguay (5 August 1961) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=8271 1961

“But complacency or self-congratulation can imperil our security as much as the weapons of tyranny. A moment of pause is not a promise of peace.”

"Address in Chicago at a dinner of the Democratic Party of Cook County (155)," (28 April 1961) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx 1961

“Frank O'Connor, the Irish writer, tells in one of his books how, as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside, and when they came to an orchard wall that seemed too high and too doubtful to try and too difficult to permit their voyage to continue, they took off their hats and tossed them over the wall — and then they had no choice but to follow them.”

1963, Third State of the Union Address

“No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue.”

1963, President John F. Kennedy's last formal speech and public words

“It has been a long road from that first snowy day in New Hampshire to this crowded convention city. Now begins another long journey, taking me into your cities and homes all over America. Give me your help, your hand, your voice, your vote. Recall with me the words of Isaiah: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary." As we face the coming challenge, we too, shall wait upon the Lord, and ask that he renew our strength. Then shall we be equal to the test. Then we shall not be weary. And then we shall prevail.”

1963, American University speech

“President Roosevelt and President Truman and President Eisenhower had the same experience, they all made the effort to get along with the Russians. But every time, finally it failed. And the reason it failed was because the Communists are determined to destroy us, and regardless of what hand of friendship we may hold out or what arguments we may put up, the only thing that will make that decisive difference is the strength of the United States.”

1960, The New Frontier

“In this sense, physical fitness is the basis of all the activities of our society. And if our bodies grow soft and inactive, if we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capacity for thought, for work and for the use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America. Thus the physical fitness of our citizens is a vital prerequisite to America's realization of its full potential as a nation, and to the opportunity of each individual citizen to make full and fruitful use of his capacities.”

Speech at Democratic Rally, George Washington High School Stadium, Alexandria, Virginia (24 August 1960) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=74188 1960