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
The poor suffer twice at the rioter’s hands. First, his destructive fury scars their neighborhood; second, the atmosphere of accommodation and consent is changed to one of hostility and resentment.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Tyranny
I believe, with abiding conviction, that this people-nurtured by their deep faith, tutored by their hard lessons, moved by their high aspirations-have the will to meet the trials that these times impose.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Aspirations
I never trust a man unless I’ve got his pecker in my pocket.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Trust
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
Success only feeds the appetite of aggression.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
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
Evil acts of the past are never rectified by evil acts of the present.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Evil
Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private. I have urged Congressexcept when the Nations security is at staketo take action to that end.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Son, in politics you’ve got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Politicians, Politics
There can no longer be anyone too poor to vote.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Voting
The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents…. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community…. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Twentieth Century, Society
I’m tired. I’m tired of feeling rejected by the American people. I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night worrying about the war.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Worry
We must not only protect the country side and save it from destruction, we must resort what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities… Once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature, his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Wilderness
Where legitimate opportunities are closed, illegitimate opportunities are seized. Whatever opens opportunity and hope will help to prevent crime and foster responsibility.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Opportunity
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Journeys, Peace
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
Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Knowledge
What’s the difference between a cannibal and a liberal? A cannibal doesn’t eat his friends.
—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
To hunger for use and to go unused is the worst hunger of all.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Career
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
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
The guns and bombs, the rockets and the warships, all are symbols of human failure.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Invention
I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Bravery, Courage
Every child must be encouraged to get as much education as he has the ability to take. We want this not only for his sake but for the nations sake. Nothing matters more to the future of our country: not military preparedness for armed might is worthless if we lack the brain power to build a world of peace; not our productive economy for we cannot sustain growth without trained manpower; not our democratic system of government for freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Dreams
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
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
Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Presidency
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
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
If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Peace
A man without a vote is man without protection.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
We must open the doors of opportunity.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Opportunity
As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Neighbors
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
Topics: Manners
Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: The Future, Tomorrow
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
I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
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
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