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. JOHNSONHug your friends tight, but your enemies tighter hug ‘em so tight they can’t wiggle.
More Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes
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I am proud to be a member of a party that opens its doors to all men–and closes its hearts to none.
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…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.
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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.
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Lincoln was right about not fooling all the people all the time. But Republicans haven’t given up trying.
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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.
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There are plenty of recommendations on how to get out of trouble cheaply and fast. Most of them come down to this: Deny your responsibility.
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In a nation of millions and a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change.
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There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
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Whether we are New Dealer, Old Dealer, Liberty Leaguer or Red, whether we agree or not, we still have the right to think and speak how we feel.
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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.
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If we must disagree, let’s disagree without being disagreeable.
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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.
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At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems – the answer for all the problems of the world – come to a single word. That word is “education.”
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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.
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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.
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Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
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Free speech, free press, free religion, the right of free assembly, yes, the right of petition. Well, they are still radical ideas.
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Education will not cure all the problems of society, but without it no cure for any problem is possible.
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No national sovereignty rules in outer space. Those who venture there go as envoys of the entire human race. Their quest, therefore, must be for all mankind, and what they find should belong to all mankind.
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But, most of all, the Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.
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Democracy is a constant tension between truth and half-truth and, in the arsenal of truth, there is no greater weapon than fact.
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No member of our generation who wasn’t a Communist or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn.
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To hunger for use and to go unused is the worst hunger of all.
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Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement.
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While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.
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We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter – and to write it in the books of law.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON