Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.
LYNDON B. JOHNSONYou do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
More Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes
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If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our nation whole.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
I will not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
If you have a mother-in-law with only one eye and she has it in the center of her forehead, don’t keep her in the living room.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
Republicans simply don’t know how to manage the economy.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
When a person finds themselves predisposed to complaining about how little they are regarded by others, let them reflect how little they have contributed to the happiness of others.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
Evil acts of the past are never rectified by evil acts of the present.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
John ain’t been worth a damn since he started wearing $300 suits.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
I’ll have those n**gers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.
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 -
I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
…International education cannot be the work of one country. It is the responsibility and promise of all nations. It calls for free exchange and full collaboration…The knowledge of our citizens is one treasure which grows only when it is shared.
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 -
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 -
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 -
In a thousand unseen ways we have drawn shape and strength from the land.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
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 -
There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
The 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 -
To sustain an environment suitable for man, we must fight on a thousand battlegrounds. Despite all of our wealth and knowledge, we cannot create a redwood forest, a wild river, or a gleaming seashore.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON -
This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON