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 future holds little hope for any government where the present holds no hope for the people.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath
—Lyndon B. Johnson
The moon and other celestial bodies should be free for exploration and use by all countries. No country should be permitted to advance a claim of sovereignty.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Space
In the last few decades entire new categories of waste have come to plague and menace the American scene. Pollution is growing at a rapid rate. Pollution destroys beauty and menaces health. It cuts down on efficiency, reduces property values and raises taxes. Almost all these wastes and pollutions are the result of activities carried on for the benefit of man. A prime national goal must be an environment that is pleasing to the senses and healthy to live in. Our Government is already doing much in this field. We have made significant progress. But more must be done.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
The separation of church and state is a source of strength, but the conscience of our nation does not call for separation between men of state and faith in the Supreme Being.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Religion
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Peace, Journeys
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
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
The exercise of power in this century has meant for all of us in the United States not arrogance, but agony.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Power
I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Bravery, Courage
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 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’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
I never trust a man unless I’ve got his pecker in my pocket.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Trust
Doing what is right isn’t the problem; it’s knowing what is right.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
A man without a vote is man without protection.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
A president’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Right, Rightness
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
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
A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a sheet on his back and a mask on his face.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Tyranny
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
As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Neighbors
What’s the difference between a cannibal and a liberal? A cannibal doesn’t eat his friends.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
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
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
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Dreams
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
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
I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for, and President Kennedy died for.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Vision, Prophecy
We must open the doors of opportunity.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Opportunity
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
We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society. We have truly entered the century of the educated man.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Necessity
Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Knowledge
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
I hope that you of the IPA will go out into the hinterland and rouse the masses and blow the bugles and tell them that the hour has arrived and their day is here; that we are on the march against the ancient enemies and we are going to be successful.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
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
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
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
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
As it was 189 years ago, so today the cause of America is a revolutionary cause. And I am proud this morning to salute you as fellow revolutionaries. Neither you nor I are willing to accept the tyranny of poverty, nor the dictatorship of ignorance, nor the despotism of ill health, nor the oppression of bias and prejudice and bigotry. We want change. We want progress. We want it both abroad and at homeand we aim to get it.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
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