"MOST EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE AT THE WHITE HOUSE SINCE JEFFERSON DINED ALONE"

JFK SPEAKS TO NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS IN STATE DINING ROOM

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On April 29, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was host at a state dinner for winners of the Nobel Prize of the Western Hemisphere. The dinner was held in the elegant State Dining Room at the White House.

The President began his remarks with these words...

"I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House.  I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, President Kennedy described the Nobel Prize winners from the United States as "a source of national pride," but added that knowledge should not be bound by nationality.

JFK said...

"More Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to citizens of the United States than any other nation (13 total)...."

President Kennedy included this quotation from Benjamin Franklin...

"The rapid progress true science now makes occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon.  It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried in a thousand years the power of man over matter."

State Dining Room

The White House

Photo by John White

NOBEL PRIZE

On December 10, 1901,  the first Nobel Prize was awarded.

President Kennedy addressed Nobel Prize winners at a dinner at the White House on April 29, 1962.

President Kennedy said:

 
"I want to tell you how welcome you are to the White House. I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

President Kennedy, continued:

"Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, and dance the minuet. Whatever he may have lacked, if he could have had his former colleague, Mr. Franklin, here we all would have been impressed."