Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1815
AUTHOR:
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–63)
QUOTATION:
In its [knowledge’s] light, we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, “In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.”
ATTRIBUTION:
President JOHN F. KENNEDY, address at the University of California, Berkeley, California, March 23, 1962.—Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962, p. 266.
Kennedy used this story a number of times. The attribution to Marshal Lyautey is unverified.
