Profile in Courage

Profile in Courage
By John F. Kennedy

To be courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place, and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all.

Politics merely furnish one arena which imposes special tests of courage. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience - the lost of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men - each man must decide for himself the course he will follow.

The stories of past courage can define that ingredient- they teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.