Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–73,) identified as LBJ, was the 36th president of the U.S. 1963–69. He succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was elected for a four-year term in 1964.
Born in Gillespie Country, Texas, LBJ served as a U.S. Representative from Texas 1937–48, U.S. Senator from Texas 1949–61, and vice president 1961–63 before assuming the presidency. His domestic reform programs in health, education, civil rights, and conservation were labeled the Great Society.
LBJ’s presidency was dominated by America’s increased involvement in the Vietnam War and 1965–68 acute race riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
LBJ was noted for his overpowering personality and his need to forcibly shape his political environment.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Lyndon B. Johnson
Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Golf
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
Topics: Prayer
To hunger for use and to go unused is the worst hunger of all.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Career
The guns and bombs, the rockets and the warships, all are symbols of human failure.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Invention
We come to reason, not to dominate. We do not seek to have our way, but to find a common way.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Unity
The future holds little hope for any government where the present holds no hope for the people.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
The test before us as a people is not whether our commitments match our will and our courage; but whether we have the will and courage to match our commitments.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Commitment
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
Topics: America
It is the common failing of totalitarian regimes that they cannot really understand the nature of our democracy. They mistake dissent for disloyalty. They mistake restlessness for a rejection of policy. They mistake a few committees for a country. They misjudge individual speeches for public policy.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Democracy, Government
There can no longer be anyone too poor to vote.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Voting
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
I never trust a man unless I’ve got his pecker in my pocket.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Trust
Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man. Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right. All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race. And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
In Asia we face an ambitious and aggressive China, but we have the will and we have the strength to help our Asian friends resist that ambition. Sometimes our folks get a little impatient. Sometimes they rattle their rockets some, and they bluff about their bombs. But we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Heck by the time a man scratches his behind, clears his throat, and tells me how smart he is, we’ve already wasted fifteen minutes.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Time Management, Time
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
Topics: Accomplishment
Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Presidency
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Dreams
Poverty has many roots, but the tap root is ignorance
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: One liners, Ignorance
A compassionate government keeps faith with the trust of the people and cherishes the future of their children
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Neighbors
If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Peace
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
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 individuals 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
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
Topics: Taxes
This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
I don’t believe in labels. I want to do the best I can, all the time. I want to be progressive without getting both feet off the ground at the same time. I want to be prudent without having my mind closed to anything that is new or different. I have often said that I was proud that I was a free man first and an American second, and a public servant third and a Democrat fourth, in that order, and I guess as a Democrat, if I had to takeplace a label on myself, I would want to be a progressive who is prudent.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Tell the Vietnamese they’ve got to draw in their horns or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Knowledge
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