Lyndon B. Johnson quotes
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Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
I'll have those ***** voting Democratic for the next 200 years. [Touting his underlying intentions for the "Great Society" programs, LBJ confided with two like-minded governors on Air Force One]
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Education will not cure all the problems of society, but without it no cure for any problem is possible.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual's dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Democrats legislate; Republicans investigate.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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Art is a nation's most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
In 1790, the nation which had fought a revolution against taxation without representation discovered that some of its citizens weren't much happier about taxation with representation.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
...International education cannot be the work of one country. It is the responsibility and promise of all nations. It calls for free exchange and full collaboration...The knowledge of our citizens is one treasure which grows only when it is shared.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.'
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
A President's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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Greater love hath no man than to attend the Episcopal Church with his wife.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Jerry Ford is so dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We must open the doors of opportunity.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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You aren't learning anything when you're talking.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Did you ever think that making a speech on economy is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter - and to write it in the books of law.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
A man can take a little bourbon without getting drunk, but if you hold his mouth open and pour in a quart, he's going to get sick on it.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The noblest search is the search for excellence.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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Education is the key to opportunity in our society, and the equality of educational opportunity must be the birthright of every citizen.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
No national sovereignty rules in outer space. Those who venture there go as envoys of the entire human race. Their quest, therefore, must be for all mankind, and what they find should belong to all mankind.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems - the answer for all the problems of the world - come to a single word. That word is "education."
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Doing what's right isn't the problem. It is knowing what's right.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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A man without a vote is man without protection.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. First, let her think she's having her own way. And second, let her have it.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We Americans know - although others appear to forget - the risk of spreading conflict. We still seek no wider war.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If anybody has any idea of hoarding our silver coins, let me say this. Treasury has a lot of silver on hand, and it can be, and it will be used to keep the price of silver in line with its value in our present silver coin. There will be no profit in holding them out of circulation for the value of their silver content.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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When a person finds themselves predisposed to complaining about how little they are regarded by others, let them reflect how little they have contributed to the happiness of others.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
"All men are created equal." "Government by consent of the governed." "Give me liberty or give me death." And those are not just clever words, and those are not just empty theories.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The crotch, down where your nuts hang, is always a little too tight.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We need to remember that the separation of church and state must never mean the separation of religious values from the lives of public servants. . . If we who serve free men today are to differ from the tyrants of this age, we must balance the powers in our hands with God in our hearts.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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We do this in order to slow down aggression. We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely born this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. And we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam-and all who seek to share their conquest-of a simple fact: We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If we become tow people-the suburban affluent and the urban poor, each filled with mistrust and fear of the other-then we shall effectively cripple each generation to come.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
You have your own difficulties. We watch, with friendly confidence in your capacity to merge differences in the grand dream of Canadian design.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
You know there is no one in the world I would rather sleep with than Yuki.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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Liberty is not enough.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
It will help at every state along the road to learning. For the pre-school years we will help needy children become aware of the excitement of learning.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Our partnership has been built on four pillars The first pillar is peace. The second pillar is freedom. The third pillar is respect. The fourth pillar is cooperation.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
No man should think that peace comes easily. Peace does not come by merely wanting it, or shouting for it, or marching down Main Street for it. Peace is built brick by brick, mortared by the stubborn effort and the total energy and imagination of able and dedicated men. And it is built in the living faith that, in the end, man can and will master his own destiny.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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The Air Force comes in every morning and says, 'Bomb, bomb, bomb' ... And then the State Department comes in and says, 'Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all.'
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions without having yet obtained the victory as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others those attempts which he neglects himself.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
I'm a powerful S.O.B., you know that?
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Every gift contains a danger. Whatever gift we have we are compelled to express. And if the expression of that gift is blocked, distorted, or merely allowed to languish, then the gift turns against us, and we suffer.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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To hunger for use and to go unused is the worst hunger of all.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
If there is one word that describes our form of society in America, it may be the word-voluntary.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
There's something special for everyone to do. Remember, no experience is a bad experience unless you gain nothing from it.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
An unspoiled river is a very rare thing in this Nation today. Their flow and vitality have been harnessed by dams and too often they have been turned into open sewers by communities and by industries. It makes us all very fearful that all rivers will go this way unless somebody acts now to try to balance our river development.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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. . . the time has also come to identify and preserve free-flowing stretches of our great rivers before growth and development make the beauty of the unspoiled waterway a memory.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The exercise of power in this century has meant for all of us in the United States not arrogance, but agony.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone's achievement.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country. So tonight I urge every public official, every religious leader, every business and professional man, every working man, every housewife - I urge every American - to join in this effort to bring justice and hope to all our people, and to bring peace to our land.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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This nation, this generation, in this hour has man's first chance to build a Great Society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of man's labor.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The great society is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goods than with the quantity of their goods.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
While you're saving your face, you're losing your ass.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
The best way to begin disarming is to begin-and the United States is ready to conclude firm agreements in these areas and to consider any other reasonable proposal.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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Any man who's not willing to take half a loaf in a negotiation, well, that man never went to bed hungry.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
But we have not used our waters well. Our major rivers are defiled by noxious debris. Pollutants from cities and industries kill the fish in our streams. Many waterways are covered with oil slicks and contain growths of algae that destroy productive life and make the water unfit for recreation. "Polluted Water-No Swimming" has become a familiar sign on too many beaches and rivers. A lake that has served many generations of men now can be destroyed by man in less than one generation.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
No one has the right to use America's rivers and America's Waterways, that belong to all the people. as a sewer. The banks of a river may belong to one man or one industry or one State, but the waters which flow between the banks should belong to all the people.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
Freedom is not enough.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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We don't propose to sit here in our rocking chair with our hands folded and let the Communists set up any government in the Western Hemisphere.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
I'm willin' for any solution - religious, political. I'm not going to keep offerin' to negotiate so much because they turn us down each time. It indicates a weakness on our part.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
I want real loyalty. I want someone who will kiss my ***** in Macy's window, and say it smells like roses.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
America has not always been kind to its artists and scholars. Somehow the scientists always seem to get the penthouse while the arts and humanities get the basement.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and enlarge his talents.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
In the Great Society, work shall be an outlet for mans interests and desires. Each individual shall have full opportunity to use his capacities in employment which satisfies personally and contributes generally to the quality of the Nations life.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
I believe that the essence of government lies with unceasing concern for the welfare and dignity and decency and innate integrity of life for every individual. I dont like to say this and wish I didnt have to add these words to make it clear but I willregardless of color, creed, ancestry, sex or age.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
In modern warfare there are no victors; there are only survivors.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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There are two kinds of speeches: the Mother Hubbard speech, which, like the garment, covers everything but touches nothing, and the French bathing suit speech, which covers only the essential points.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
A compassionate government keeps faith with the trust of the people and cherishes the future of their children. Through compassion for the plight of one individual, government fulfills its purpose as the servant of all the people.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
You never want to give a man a present when he's feeling good. You want to do it when he's down.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
We must change to master change.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson -
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