JFK is attributed to saying Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country didn't Kahlil Gibran first say that regarding his homeland Lebanon?

Answer 1

The John F. Kennedy quote is more than attributed. It is documented. He did in fact say "Ask not what your country can do for you" as part of his inaugural address given on 20 January 1961.

There have been questions about whether he was influenced by other authors who may have said similar things. This would not be surprising, since speeches often refer back to other sources. We do not whether President Kennedy was a fan of Kahlil Gibran, but Gibran did publish a similar statement in his 1925 work titled "The New Frontier", thirty-six years before President Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural Address. This similarity has been noted by scholars at Princeton University, where some of Gibran's papers reside. Here is the quote:

"Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert." Khalil Gibran.

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/07/0618/07a.shtml

Answer 2

yes