Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth.

Message to the Congress, May 25, 1961

We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

Message to the Congress, May 25, 1961

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.

Message to the Congress, May 25, 1961

The survival of the man who first makes this daring flight, but in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon--if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Message to the Congress, May 25, 1961