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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

If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Live Peace Togetherness Understand
If you’re I politics and you can’t tell when you walk into a room who’s for you and who’s against you, then you’re in the wrong line of work.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Politics Walk Wrong Yourself
The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Failure Human Peace War Weapon
Of course, I may go into a strange bedroom every now and then that I don’t want you to write about, but otherwise you can write everything.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Myself Room Strange Writing
Education will not cure all the problems of society, but without it no cure for any problem is possible.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Education Possible Problem
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

Control Destiny People Right Vote
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

Battle Creation Fight Knowledge Man Ourselves Sea Wealth Wild
All men are created equal’, ‘government by consent of the governed’, ‘give me liberty or give me death’. Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Creation Empty Equality Inspirational Man Motivational Theory Word
Education is the key to opportunity in our society, and the equality of educational opportunity must be the birthright of every citizen.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Citizenship Education Money Opportunity Ourselves
It’s the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Believe Leadership Price Time
It’s too bad, but the way American people are, now that they have all this capability, instead of taking advantage of it, they’ll probably just piss it all away.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Ability Bad People Talent Waste
You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Problem Right Wisdom
Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. He’s a nice fellow, but he spent too much time playing football without a helmet.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Himself Play Sports Walk
Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Education Justice Men Opportunity Race Skin
There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Equality Justice Myself
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

Happiness Kindness Person Reflection
Light at the end of the tunnel? We don’t even have a tunnel; we don’t even know where the tunnel is.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

End Hard Time Light
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

Civilization Development Failure History Lesson Nation Planning Protection Ruin
If we must disagree, let’s disagree without being disagreeable.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Agreement Talk
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

Eyes Law Mother Room Yourself
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.’
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Morning Oneself Reading
Democrats legislate; Republicans investigate.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Democracy Politics
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

Democracy Government Greatness Honesty Truth Weapon
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

Break Destroy Different Justice Man Powerful Prison Vote
The noblest search is the search for excellence.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Excellence Search Success
As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Funny Himself Men Stars Togetherness
There is no issue of States’ rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON

Human Issues Right Struggle

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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