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
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
Every night before I turn out the lights to sleep, I ask myself this question: Have I done everything that I can … Have I done enough?
—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
The future holds little hope for any government where the present holds no hope for the people.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Government
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
What’s the difference between a cannibal and a liberal? A cannibal doesn’t eat his friends.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
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
Son, in politics you’ve got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Politicians, Politics
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Dreams
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
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
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
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
A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Water
Doing what is right isn’t the problem; it’s knowing what is right.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
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
Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: The Future, Tomorrow
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
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
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
Evil acts of the past are never rectified by evil acts of the present.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Evil
You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Learning
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
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
Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath
—Lyndon B. Johnson
If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Peace
I pray we are still a young and courageous nation, that we have not grown so old and so fat and so prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us—dollars and all.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: America
We must open the doors of opportunity.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Opportunity
I never trust a man unless I’ve got his pecker in my pocket.
—Lyndon B. Johnson
Topics: Trust
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Hubert Humphrey American Head of State
- Richard Nixon American Head of State
- John F. Kennedy American Head of State
- Ronald Reagan American Head of State
- Jimmy Carter American Head of State
- Theodore Roosevelt American Head of State
- George H. W. Bush American Head of State
- Herbert Hoover American Statesman
- Dwight D. Eisenhower American Head of State
- Calvin Coolidge American Head of State
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