John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy, (1917-1963) 35th US President

John F. Kennedy Quote

“Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain.”

John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
~ John F. Kennedy


Ratings and Comments


Mike, Norwalk

I like it.

E Archer, NYC

Very true.

Anonymous

true

Peggy, Livingston,NJ

What are we going to do with two generations of high school dropouts ?

Mike, Norwalk

A caveat here would be, what is taught and what is learned. There is as great a peril, or worse - if what is learned is anti-liberty. By way of example: if tyranny's legal positivism (as is averse to a constitutional extension of the laws of nature and of nature's God) is taught, learned and accepted as liberty, the statement looses all understanding and reality, while super emphasizing the second half of the statement.

Louis, Stuart

Two and a half stars actually.

I fully agree with the first half of this quote. If those who enjoy liberty feel they do not need to know how to think for themselves, how to process all the information that each day brings to them, how to assess what it is they are learning - as to whether it serves to free them or enslave them, that liberty will always be at peril.

However, the second half contradicts a more powerful quote that Kennedy also said to Latin American diplomats at the White House on 13 March 1962.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

If it was true that learning under dictators and other tyrants, of any description, resulted in learning being in vain, none of us would be free. That is why tyrannies, of any sort, seek to obstruct people from learning how to think. They focus instead on teaching what to think.

This is what concerns me the most about recent protests on college campuses that seek to prevent people from hearing views the protestors might not agree with.

Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

Some proof of the Dialectical Materialism. Learning without liberty is in peril which is often necessary for it is this challenge that truly shows what we are made of, liberty without learning is in vain..

E Archer, NYC
  • Reply
E Archer, NYC Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown 5/1/24

Hmm, how very Marxist of you. Obviously, your "challenge" is to attempt to redefine socialism into something uniquely your own, without admitting it is merely a corrupted parroting of classic communistic theology.  You are a fake (and not a very good one).

@

Get a Quote-a-Day!

Liberty Quotes sent to your mail box daily.