Tuesday, October 29, 2013

JFK admired those who question the status quo

"When power leads man to arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diverstiy of this existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgement."

From a talk given by President John F Kennedy in October 1963 at Amherst College, Massachusetts.

Poet Robert Frost taught English at the college.

1 comment:

Karen said...

JFK is a particular fascination of mine. We studied his assassination and it's impact as part of our A-Level history course. Sad that it may have been his own questioning of the status quo that lead to his demise.

Also Robert Frost's 'The road not taken' is one of my favourite poems. All in all, I like the subjects of this post :)

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