Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

One person can make a difference, and every person should try

Not John F. Kennedy — written by Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929–1994 · U.S. First Lady, describing her late husband’s beliefs
Disputed In copyright

The exact wording traces not to the President but to his widow. For a Kennedy Library exhibit in the mid-1960s, Jacqueline Kennedy wrote that “he believed that one man can make a difference — and that every man should try,” and Look magazine correctly credited her in 1966. The JFK Library’s own archivists found no concrete evidence that JFK himself ever said or wrote it; the gender-neutral ‘person’ wording is a later rephrasing that drifted onto his name by the 1980s.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“One person can make a difference, and every person should try” commonly credited to John F. Kennedy, but the words were written by Jacqueline Kennedy about him; Look magazine credited her in 1966.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to John F. Kennedy. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (and original publishers)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — U.S. First Lady & book editor. Theme: "One person can make a difference, and every person should try". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "One person can make a difference, and every person should try". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the words actually come from

True author
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Original wording
He believed that one man can make a difference — and that every man should try.
First published
Look magazine, 1966 (credited to Jacqueline Kennedy)
Popularized by
Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 campaign

He believed that one man can make a difference — and that every man should try.

Jacqueline Kennedy’s original wording, describing her husband’s beliefs. The familiar ‘one person…every person should try’ is a later, gender-neutral rewording pinned onto JFK himself.

The JFK Library Archives: Did JFK Say It?

The paper trail

  • The JFK Library Archives investigated the line and found no concrete evidence John F. Kennedy ever said or wrote it.
  • Per the same JFK Library account, Jacqueline Kennedy authored the statement for a Library exhibit and Look magazine correctly credited her in 1966.
  • Reference works echo this: Respectfully Quoted (1989) lists “One man can make a difference and every man should try” under Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
In copyright

The documented wording was written by Jacqueline Kennedy and first published in Look magazine in 1966 — well after 1931 — so the specific phrasing is in copyright, not public domain. The later gender-neutral ‘one person…every person’ variant is an unattributed paraphrase with no identified source.

Fact-check

How a wife’s tribute became her husband’s quote

This is one of the most durable Kennedy misquotes — and unusually, its true origin is fully documented by the Kennedy family’s own library.

John F. Kennedy No primary source

The line appears in none of JFK’s documented speeches or writings and is almost always quoted undated. The JFK Library Archives report finding no concrete evidence he ever said it; writers only began stating “JFK said” the line directly around the early 1980s.

Robert F. Kennedy

During his 1968 presidential campaign, RFK told Idaho State University students that “one man can make a difference and that every man should try,” and used the line so often that it became closely tied to him as well, per the JFK Library Archives.

The words were written by Jacqueline Kennedy to describe her husband’s outlook, and were correctly credited to her when Look printed them in 1966; reference works such as Respectfully Quoted still list the line under her name.

Context

Why this one is worth getting right

The sentiment is so on-brand for John F. Kennedy’s call to public service that few readers question it — which is exactly how a tribute written about him became a quote by him. The actual author, Jacqueline Kennedy, was characterizing a belief she attributed to her husband, not reporting a sentence he spoke.

The Kennedy Library itself flags the line as unverified for JFK, an unusually clean case where the misattribution can be traced sentence by sentence back to its real source.

He believed that one man can make a difference — and that every man should try.

The wording’s drift, step by step

Mid-1960s: Jacqueline Kennedy writes the statement for a traveling Kennedy Library exhibit: “He believed that one man can make a difference — and that every man should try.”

1966: Look magazine prints it, correctly crediting Jacqueline Kennedy.

1968: Robert F. Kennedy adopts a near-identical line on the campaign trail, cementing the family association.

Early 1980s onward: Newspapers and, later, mugs and posters begin attributing the line directly to John F. Kennedy, often in the gender-neutral ‘one person…every person’ form.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Purpose Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Did JFK Say It? — JFK Library Archivesjfk.blogs.archives.gov

The authoritative investigation by the Kennedy Library’s own archivists tracing the line to Jacqueline Kennedy and debunking the JFK attribution.
Respectfully Quoted entry (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis)libquotes.com

Reference-work attribution listing the line under Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis rather than JFK.
John F. Kennedy — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Collected and sourced Kennedy quotations, useful for checking which lines are actually documented.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Background on the line’s true author, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
JFK Library: John F. Kennedy Quotationsjfklibrary.org

The Library’s official list of documented JFK quotations, for comparison.

The real author

The First Lady behind the line

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

1929–1994 · U.S. First Lady & book editor

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was First Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963 and, after the assassinations of her husband and brother-in-law, a longtime book editor in New York. In the mid-1960s she wrote a statement for a traveling Kennedy Library exhibit summarizing her late husband’s convictions — the passage from which this widely misattributed ‘one person can make a difference’ quote descends.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source & attribution history

Jacqueline Kennedy, statement for the John F. Kennedy Library exhibit, mid-1960s; first published in Look magazine, 1966. Attribution history documented in “Did JFK Say It?: One Person Can Make a Difference and Everyone Should Try,” JFK Library Archives blog, 28 October 2019.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘One person can make a difference, and every person should try’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/one-person-can-make-a-difference-and-every-person-should-try

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