Lyndon B Johnson Quotes

A clear stream, a long horizon, a forest wilderness and open sky - these are man's most ancient possessions. In a modern society, they are his most priceless. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Jack was out kissing babies while I was out passing bills. Someone had to tend the store. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Today, 8 million adult Americans, more than the entire population of Michigan, have not finished 5 years of school. Nearly 20 million have not finished 8 years of school. Nearly 54 million - more than one-quarter of all America - have not even finished high school. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

While you're saving your face, you're losing your ass. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It now seems to be quite a thing to pull down the mighty from their seats and roll them in the mire. This practice deserves pronounced condemnation. Hero worship is a tremendous force in uplifting and strengthening. Humanity, let us have our heroes. Let us continue to believe that some have been truly great. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Extremism is the pursuit of the presidency is an unpardonable vice. Moderation in the affairs of the nation is the highest virtue. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

We decided that our first job was to help the schools serving the children from the very lowest income groups. Those families constitute the number one burden, the number one burden in this Nation on the school systems. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize Oh man ... I could be eating a slow learner. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Light at the end of the tunnel? We don't even have a tunnel; we don't even know where the tunnel is. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

All that Hubert needs over there is a gal to answer the phone and a pencil with an eraser on it. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

In the years since then, those four freedoms - freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear - have stood as a summary of our aspirations for the American Republic and for the world. ~ 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

War is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate. Therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in the world. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

A President must call on many persons
some to man the ramparts and to watch the far away, distant posts; others to lead us in science, medicine, education and social progress here at home. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

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

We know that they cannot bear their share of the taxes to help pay for their education. And unless those children get a good education we know that they become dropouts and they become delinquents and they become taxeaters instead of taxpayers. We know that they will join the unemployed. That is why we put top priority on breaking the vicious cycle that today threatens the future of 5 million children in this great land of opportunity which we talk about so much. ~ 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

Ask him about the cemeteries, Dean!"
In 1966 upon being told that President Charles DeGaulle had taken France out of NATO and that all U.S. troops must be evacuated off of French soil President Lyndon Johnson mentioned to Secretary of State Dean Rusk that he should ask DeGaulle about the Americans buried in France. Dean implied in his answer that that DeGaulle should not really be asked that in the meeting at which point President Johnson then told Secretary of State Dean Rusk:
"Ask him about the cemeteries Dean!"
That made it into a Presidential Order so he had to ask President DeGaulle.
So at end of the meeting Dean did ask DeGaulle if his order to remove all U.S. troops from French soil also included the 60,000+ soldiers buried in France from World War I and World War II.
DeGaulle, embarrassed, got up and left and never answered. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance. Each man and woman-and each nation-must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face of this great problem. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

History may well record that we served liberty and saved freedom when we undertook a crash program in the field of education ... I hope this bill is only the forerunner of better things to come. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don't think the press has understood me. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

If the American people don't love me, their descendants will. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It may be, it just may be, that life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying you are free to compete with all the others, and still justly believe you have been completely fair ... We seek not just freedom but opportunity ... not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Boys, it is just like the Alamo. Somebody should have by God helped those Texans. I'm going to Vietnam. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

All the historians are Harvard people. It just isn't fair. Poor old Hoover from West Branch, Iowa, had no chance with that crowd;nor did Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. Nor does Lyndon Johnson from Stonewall, Texas. It just isn't fair. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

What we won when all of our people united must not be lost in suspicion and distrust and selfishness and politics. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as president. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

All of us realize that war requires action. What is sometimes harder for us to realize is that peace and neutrality also require action. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

So, I would appeal to my fellow Americans by saying, the only real road to progress for free people is through the process of law and that is the road that America will travel. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Not merely a nation but a nation of nations. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I don't think that I need to tell you how important to the outcome of that race is the education legislation that is now before the Congress. I hope that it is important enough that most of you have studied it in detail. I hope that you understand that it represents the very best thinking that the leading educators of this country can produce. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It's the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done. ~ 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

If you're not listening, you're not learning. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

In a nation of millions and a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You've got to just stand there and take it. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

If I could get one message to you it would be this: the future of this country and the welfare of the free world depends upon our success in space. There is no room in this country for any but a fully cooperative, urgently motivated all-out effort toward space leadership. No one person, no one company, no one government agency, has a monopoly on the competence, the missions, or the requirements for the space program. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

A good president does with executive power what Pablo Picasso did with paint. He takes bills into new and slightly discomfiting territory. He puts extra eyes on policies. He moves the mouth of the Supreme Court from where it should be to where it must be. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

[T]he 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

Conservation is ethically sound. It is rooted in our love of the land, our respect for the rights of others, our devotion to the rule of law. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Of course, I may go into a strange bedroom every now and then that I don't want you to write about, but otherwise you can write everything. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Come now. let us reason together. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help - and God's. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

They call upon us to supply American boys to do the job that Asian boys should do. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against society. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

The final conquest of poverty is within our grasp. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

For the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

We must change to master change. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It is happily and kindly provided that in every life there are certain pauses, and interruptions, which force consideration upon the careless, and seriousness upon the light, points of time where one course of action ends and another begins. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Mr. Speaker, at a time when the nation is again confronted with necessity for calling its young men into service in the interestsof National Security, I cannot see the wisdom of denying our young women the opportunity to serve their country. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

President Kennedy's eloquence was designed to make men think; President Johnson's hammer blows are designed to make men act. ~ Robert A. Caro

In modern warfare there are no victors; there are only survivors. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

There is nothing that exasperates people more than a display of superior ability or brilliance in conversation. They seem pleased at the time, but their envy makes them curse the conversationalist in their heart. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Poverty has many roots, but the tap root is ignorance. ~ 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

A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can no longer govern. He is destined to become as much a failure as his war. ~ Glenn Greenwald

For the college years we will provide scholarships to high school students of the greatest promise and greatest need and guarantee low-interest loans to students continuing their college studies. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I want every family in America to have a carpet on the floor and a picture on the wall. After bread, you've got to have a picture on the wall. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

For the individual, education is the path to achievement and fulfillment; for the nation, it is a path to a society that is not only free but civilized; and for the world, it is the path to peace - for it is education that places reason over force. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

In addition to our existing programs, I will recommend a new program for schools and students with a first-year authorization of $1,500 million. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It means an educational system which does not simply equip the students to adjust to society, but which enables the student to challenge and to modify, and at times reject, if necessary, the received wisdom of his elders. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Today - wealthier, more powerful and more able than ever before in our history - our Nation can declare another essential freedom. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

The American people have a right to air that they and their children can breathe without fear. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Democracy is a constant tension between truth and half-truth and, in the arsenal of truth, there is no greater weapon than fact. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I was introduced to Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson. The young Congressman was very friendly. ~ Erich Leinsdorf

I'd rather give my life than be afraid to give it. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

You know there is no one in the world I would rather sleep with than Yuki. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

If we stand passively by while the centre of each city becomes a hive of depravation, crime and hopelessness ... if we become two people, the suburban affluent and the urban poor, each filled with mistrust and fear for the other ... then we shall effectively cripple each generation to come. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I'm gonna hunker down like a jack rabbit in a dust storm ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

We of the United States consider ourselves blessed. We have much to give thanks for. But the gift of providence we cherish most is that we were given as our neighbors on this wonderful continent the people and the nation of Canada. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I may not worry as much as Prime Minister Eshkol does about Israel, but I worry as deeply. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I report to you that our country is challenged at home and abroad: that it is our will that is being tried and not our strength; our sense of purpose and not our ability to achieve a better America. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

The law cannot save those who deny it but neither can the law serve any who do not use it. The history of injustice and inequality is a history of disuse of the law. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I hear the headlines on the radio, see them on TV and read them in the paper. When I hear from the men out there, I sometimes don't believe they are talking about the same situation. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, 'His color is not mine,' or 'His beliefs are strange and different,' in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears created this nation. ~ 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

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

For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For this generation, the choice must be our own. [ ... ] Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged
character of our people, and on their faith. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

'Human history, ' H.G. Wells once wrote, 'becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.' You and I cannot be indifferent to the outcome of that race. We care deeply about the winner. Because we do care so deeply about the winner, that is why we are all in the East Room of the White House today. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

If one little old general in shirt sleeves can take Saigon, think about 200 million Chinese comin' down those trails. No sir, I don't want to fight them. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences - deep, corrosive, obstinate differences - radiating painful roots into the community and into the family, and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice, and present prejudice. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

It is always a strain when people are being killed. I don't think anybody has held this job who hasn't felt personally responsible for those being killed. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

If you're I politics and you can't tell when you walk into a room who's for you and who's against you, then you're in the wrong line of work. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

New laboratories and centers will help our schools lift their standards of excellence and explore new methods of teaching. These centers will provide special training for those who need and deserve special treatment. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1965

My fellow countrymen, on this occasion, the oath I have taken before you and before God is not mine alone, but ours together. We are one nation and one people. Our fate as a nation and our future as a people rest not upon one citizen, but upon all citizens.

This is the majesty and the meaning of this moment.

For every generation, there is a destiny. For some, history decides. For this generation, the choice must be our own.

Even now, a rocket moves toward Mars. It reminds us that the world will not be the same for our children, or even for ourselves m a short span of years. The next man to stand here will look out on a scene different from our own, because ours is a time of change-- rapid and fantastic change bearing the secrets of nature, multiplying the nations, placing in uncertain hands new weapons for mastery and destruction, shaking old values, and uprooting old ways.

Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character of our people, and on their faith.

THE AMERICAN COVENANT

They came here--the exile and the stranger, brave but frightened-- to find a place where a man could be his own man. They made a covenant with this land. Conceived in justice, written in liberty, bound in union, it was meant one day to inspire the hopes of all mankind; and it binds us still. If we keep its terms, we shall flourish.

JUSTICE AND CHANGE

Firs ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Whether we are New Dealer, Old Dealer, Liberty Leaguer or Red, whether we agree or not, we still have the right to think and speak how we feel. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

When things haven't gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

He was to become the lawmaker for the poor and the downtrodden and the oppressed. He was to be the bearer of at least a measure of social justice to those whom social justice had so long been denied. The restorer of at least a measure of dignity to those who so desperately needed to be given some dignity. The redeemer of the promises made by them to America. "It is time to write it in the books of law." By the time Lyndon Johnson left office he had done a lot of writing in those books, had become, above all presidents save Lincoln, the codifier of compassion, the president who wrote mercy and justice in the statute books by which America was governed. ~ Robert A. Caro

Only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other is to let her have it. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

There can no longer be anyone too poor to vote. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson