The Jesuit Ivy Address
The following is an excerpt of the address given by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy at the Boston College commencement exercises in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts on 26 June 1956.
Never before in our history has there been a greater need for men of integrity and courage in the public service. Never before in our history has there been a greater need for the people to take up willingly the responsibility of free government. Certainly you as educated Catholics are committed to bear your share of the burden, for the philosophy that you have been taught here at Boston College is needed in the solution of the problems we face. As graduates of the Jesuit Ivy, facing war and peace, with the fate of Western civilization hanging in the balance, the somber question indeed of the survival of our Faith and country at stake, each man among you can afford to answer that call to service.Read more about this topic: Jesuit Ivy
Famous quotes containing the words ivy and/or address:
“Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more,
Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never-sere,
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,
And with forc’d fingers rude
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.
Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear
Compels me to disturb your season due:
For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“If you address a ghost as “Thing!”
Or strike him with a hatchet,
He is permitted by the King
To drop all formal parleying—
And then you’re sure to catch it!”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)