Lyndon 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

I ... " Her face twists into a painful expression. I open my mouth to tell her that it's okay, that I don't even need to hear it when she blurts it out. "I love you, Lex Lyndon. Gah!" Olivia lifts her hands up and wipes at her tongue like it's been contaminated. "That was so gross. ~ C.M. Stunich

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

(Lyndon) Johnson created his own theater. ~ Robert A. Caro

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

Lyndon Johnson was a master of self-justification. According to his biographer Robert Caro, when Johnson came to believe in something, he would believe in it "totally, with absolute conviction, regardless of previous beliefs, or of the facts in the matter." George Reedy, one of Johnson's aides, said that he "had a remarkable capacity to convince himself that he held the principles he should hold at any given time, and there was something charming about the air of injured innocence with which he would treat anyone who brought forth evidence that he had held other views in the past. It was not an act… He had a fantastic capacity to persuade himself that the 'truth' which was convenient for the present was the truth and anything that conflicted with it was the prevarication of enemies. He literally willed what was in his mind to become reality." Although Johnson's supporters found this to be a rather charming aspect of the man's character, it might well have been one of the major reasons that Johnson could not extricate the country from the quagmire of Vietnam. A president who justifies his actions only to the public might be induced to change them. A president who has justified his actions to himself, believing that he has the truth, becomes impervious to self-correction. ~ Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson

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

Dignity was a luxury in a fight with Lyndon Johnson, a luxury too expensive to afford. ~ Robert A. Caro

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

When Kennedy could not get the civil rights bill passed - and he was the big liberal - Lyndon Johnson came in and it got passed, and he was the conservative and the southerner. So sometimes in politics, to get something done, it takes a special kind of knowledge and a special kind of person, but it doesn't always follow the party lines. ~ Jim Brown

The middle way is still driving on the wrong side of the road; it still permits the killing of the fox for pleasure. One cannot kill half a fox. Like Monty Python parrot, a fox torn apart by hounds remains dead, deceased and off its perch for ever. Before the fox has been dispatched - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly - it will have suffered the agonies of the pursuit by animals four times its size and four times its strength. The middle way is a compromise that still seriously compromises the welfare of the fox. ~ Lyndon Harrison, Baron Harrison

Lyndon Johnson rose above the doubt and fear to hold this Nation on course until we rediscovered our faith in ourselves. ~ Richard M. Nixon

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

(President) Lyndon Johnson still snapped between exultation and insecurity. ~ Rick Perlstein

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

Lyndon Johnson's sentences were the sentences of a man with a remarkable gift for words, not long words but evocative, of a man with a remarkable gift for images, homey images of a vividness that infused the sentences with drama. ~ Robert A. Caro

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

Killing for pleasure is wrong and should be banned. Fox hunting, stag hunting and hare coursing are moral issues. It is time that we stood up for morality. The commandment Thou shall not kill may be hedged with exceptions.Thou shall not kill for pleasure is not; it is a commandment for the 21st century and it is time that we respected it unambiguously, without prevarication and without procrastination. ~ Lyndon Harrison, Baron Harrison

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

After Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the belief in decent housing as a political right or social obligation was supplanted in the U.S. by the notion that suitable shelter should be an act of charity. ~ Martin Filler

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

It's not doing what is right that's hard for a President. It's knowing what is right. ~ Lyndon Johnson

He [Lyndon Johnson] hated the war. He hated having anybody put in harm away. But he believed that what we were doing is what we had to do for our commitments with SEATO, for many reasons. And he was carrying forth a policy that he had inherited. And he tried and got us to the peace table in 1968. ~ Lynda Bird Johnson Robb

Lyndon Johnson faced some clear moral issues. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

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

When I got back to NY had the opportunity to work with the beginning years of the poetry project which was founded with money from the OEO under Lyndon Johnson to work with alienated youth on the lower East side. This was extraordinary, to be able to help then to create a culture that would capture the energy that I felt at Berkley. ~ Anne Waldman

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

Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam were perfect for Lyndon Johnson: 220 million against 18 million, water buffalo and all. No risk, really. ~ David Douglas Duncan

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

Bobby Kennedy's conduct toward Lyndon Johnson was childish and despicable. As the years went on, he displayed nasty, self-pitying, and messianic qualities that would have made him a dangerously authoritarian president. ~ Thomas Mallon

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

Lyndon Johnson. The junior congressman saw two things that no one else saw. The first was a possible connection between two groups that had previously had no link: conservative Texas oilmen and contractors - most notably his financial backer, Herman Brown, of Brown & Root - who needed federal contracts and tax breaks and were willing to spend money, a lot of money, to get them; and the scores of northern, liberal congressmen, running for re-election, who needed money for their campaigns. The second was that he could become that link. ~ Robert A. Caro

There was something about Miss Lyndon that made him glad she was on his side. Not that he thought she would make a vicious enemy, just that she seemed loyal, level-headed, and fair. And she had a wicked sense of humor. Just the sort of person a man would want standing beside him when he needed support. ~ Julia Quinn

It's Kennedy's war, Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson got all the flak, but it's Kennedy's war. ~ Salman Rushdie

The most intimidating world leader was Lyndon Johnson, who became U.S. President when John Kennedy was assassinated. He exulted in this power and liked to inspire fear. ~ Paul 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

You know when I first thought I might have a chance? When I realized that you could go into any bar in the country and insult Lyndon Johnson and nobody would punch you in the nose. ~ Eugene McCarthy

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