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Who really said it

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard

Spoken by John F. Kennedy 1917–1963 · 35th U.S. President · spoken 12 September 1962
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Kennedy delivered this line in his “Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort” at Rice Stadium in Houston on 12 September 1962. The event was recorded, filmed, and transcribed, and the wording is confirmed against the archival text held by the JFK Presidential Library ↗.

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard” John F. Kennedy, "Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort," 12 September 1962 — "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

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Provenance

The primary source

Work
Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort
Speaker
President John F. Kennedy
Date & place
12 September 1962 · Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas
Principal drafter
Theodore “Ted” Sorensen, with edits by Kennedy

But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? … We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too. ↑ the popular version usually stops at ‘hard’ and drops ‘and do the other things’

Immediately before this passage Kennedy ad-libbed the crowd-pleasing line “Why does Rice play Texas?” — a jibe he had added by hand to Sorensen’s typed draft.

JFK Library — Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort

How we verified this

  • The full authenticated transcript is published by Rice University ↗, host of the 1962 address.
  • Wikipedia ↗ documents the date, venue, and Ted Sorensen’s authorship of the drafts.
  • Rice News ↗ notes the speech was typed by Sorensen and that Kennedy jotted the ‘Why does Rice play Texas?’ line between the lines.
Public domain

A speech delivered by a U.S. President in the course of official duties is a work of the U.S. federal government and is in the public domain.

Fact-check

How it gets garbled

The attribution to Kennedy is correct — the recurring errors are about the wording and the author behind the President, not the speaker.

“…not because it is easy, but because it is hard” wording

The clipped popular version drops “and do the other things” and singularises the pronouns. The authenticated transcript ↗ reads “…not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Ted Sorensen authorship

Sorensen drafted the speech and deserves real credit, but the words were delivered as Kennedy’s own after Kennedy’s edits, per the record ↗. Convention rightly attributes the spoken line to the President.

Bottom line: the line is genuinely John F. Kennedy’s, spoken at Rice University on 12 September 1962 — drafted by Sorensen — and is most accurately quoted with “and do the other things” and the plural “they are hard,” per the Rice University transcript ↗.

Context

Why it mattered

Kennedy spoke roughly a year after committing the nation, before Congress, to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out. The Rice address was the public, rhetorical case for a program that at its peak consumed a large share of the federal budget.

The “not because they are easy, but because they are hard” construction reframed difficulty itself as the reason for the endeavour — a rhetorical inversion that has since been borrowed for countless ambitious goals far beyond spaceflight.

We choose to go to the Moon … not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

A note on the ‘Rice play Texas’ line

Just before the famous sentence, Kennedy delivered the aside “Why does Rice play Texas?” — a nod to the local college-football rivalry that he had added in his own hand to Sorensen’s typed draft. It drew a roar from the Houston crowd and is preserved in the recording of the speech.

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Filed under

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

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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.

Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effortjfklibrary.org

The JFK Presidential Library's authoritative page for the speech, with audio and transcript.
John F. Kennedy Speech (full transcript)rice.edu

Rice University's published transcript of the address delivered in its stadium.
We choose to go to the Moonen.wikipedia.org

Encyclopedic overview: date, venue, Sorensen's drafting, and reception.
JFK's 1962 moon speech still appeals 50 years laternews.rice.edu

Rice News on the speech's drafting and Kennedy's handwritten additions.
"We Choose to Go to the Moon" and Other Apollo Speechesairandspace.si.edu

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum context on the Apollo-era speeches.

About the speaker

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

1917–1963 · 35th President of the United States

John Fitzgerald Kennedy served as the 35th U.S. President from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. In 1961 he set the national goal of a crewed Moon landing before the decade’s end, and his 1962 Rice University address became the defining public statement of that ambition. As with most presidential oratory, the text was principally drafted by his counsel and speechwriter Ted Sorensen, then shaped and delivered by Kennedy.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

John F. Kennedy, “Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort,” Rice Stadium, Houston, Texas, 12 September 1962. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

MLA (9th ed.)

Kennedy, John F. “Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort.” Rice Stadium, Houston, TX, 12 Sept. 1962.

APA (7th ed.)

Kennedy, J. F. (1962, September 12). Address at Rice University on the nation’s space effort [Speech]. Rice Stadium, Houston, TX.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/we-choose-to-go-to-the-moon-in-this-decade-and-do-the-other

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