The Best Lyndon Johnson quotes

Every President wants to do right. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President. — 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

President Can’t Swim. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good. — 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

My most fervent prayer is to be a President who can make it possible for every boy in this land to grow to manhood by loving his country––instead of dying for it. — Lyndon B. Johnson

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President. — Lyndon B. Johnson

And he worked himself, worked himself. He had made up his mind to be President, and he was demonic in his drive. — Robert A. Caro

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The fifth freedom is freedom from ignorance. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The classroom–not the trench–is the frontier of freedom now and forevermore. — Lyndon B. Johnson

This is not a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom on every front of human activity. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Second, this law has become a special symbol of our Nation’s most important purpose: to fulfill the individual–his freedom, his happiness, his promise. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Liberty is not enough. — Lyndon B. Johnson

You know there is no one in the world I would rather sleep with than Yuki. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The thing I would like to do most is to find somehow to bring peace to the world. It has eluded me. — Lyndon B. Johnson

We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood. — Lyndon B. Johnson

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. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Control of space means control of the world. — Lyndon B. Johnson

For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help–and God’s. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Not merely a nation but a nation of nations. — Lyndon B. Johnson

I believe the destiny of your generation–and your nation–is a rendezvous with excellence. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Extremism is the pursuit of the presidency is an unpardonable vice. Moderation in the affairs of the nation is the highest virtue. — Lyndon B. Johnson

No nation in the world has had greater fortune than mine in sharing a continent with the people and the nation of Canada. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Today–wealthier, more powerful and more able than ever before in our history–our Nation can declare another essential freedom. — Lyndon B. Johnson

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

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

The United States and Israel] share many common objectives … chief of which is the building of a better world in which every nation can develop its resources and develop them in freedom and peace. — Lyndon B. Johnson

This nation, this generation, in this hour has man’s first chance to build a Great Society, a place where the meaning of man’s life matches the marvels of man’s labor. — 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

The atomic bomb certainly is the most powerful of all weapons, but it is conclusively powerful and effective only in the hands of the nation which controls the sky. — 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

In a nation of millions and a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change. — Lyndon B. Johnson

If there is one word that describes our form of society in America, it may be the word–voluntary. — Lyndon B. Johnson

I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against society. — Lyndon B. Johnson

A clear stream, a long horizon, a forest wilderness and open sky–these are man’s most ancient possessions. In a modern society, they are his most priceless. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and enlarge his talents. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The family is the corner stone of our society. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The great society is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goods than with the quantity of their goods. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Mrs. Roosevelt felt, was the fault of society; ‘a civilization which does not provide young people with a way to earn a living is pretty poor, — Robert A. Caro

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life. — Lyndon B. Johnson

To conclude that women are unfitted to the task of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts. — Lyndon B. Johnson

We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity. — Lyndon B. Johnson

We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Education will not cure all the problems of society, but without it no cure for any problem is possible. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Once we considered education a public expense; we know now that it is a public investment. — 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 nation’s sake. — Lyndon B. Johnson

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

It is a truism that education is no longer a luxury. Education in this day and age is a necessity. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Every man of any education would rather be called a rascal, than accused of deficiency in the graces. — Lyndon B. Johnson

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

History may well record that we served liberty and saved freedom when we undertook a crash program in the field of education . . .. I hope this bill is only the forerunner of better things to come. — Lyndon B. Johnson

The job, of course, will never be finished. For a nation, as for an individual, education is a perpetually unfinished journey, a continuing process of discovery. — Lyndon B. Johnson

A President must call on many persons––some to man the ramparts and to watch the far away, distant posts; others to lead us in science, medicine, education and social progress here at home. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Nothing comes free. Nothing. Not even good, especially not good. — Lyndon B. Johnson

E]very man, everywhere, should be free to develop his talents to their full potential–unhampered by arbitrary barriers of race or birth or income. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Free speech, free press, free religion, the right of free assembly, yes, the right of petition… well, they are still radical ideas. — 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

So here is the Great Society. It’s the time–and it’s going to be soon–when nobody in this country is poor. — Lyndon B. Johnson

For the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty. — Lyndon B. Johnson

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

Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time. — Lyndon B. Johnson

I’m willin’ for any solution–religious, political. I’m not going to keep offerin’ to negotiate so much because they turn us down each time. It indicates a weakness on our part. — Lyndon B. Johnson

You know, a man ain’t worth a damn if he can’t cry at the right time. — Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Lincoln was right about not fooling all the people all the time. But Republicans haven’t given up trying. — Lyndon B. Johnson

I won’t have you electioneering on my doorstep. Every time you get in trouble in Parliament you run over here with your shirttail hanging out. — 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

The time has also come to identify and preserve free–flowing stretches of our great rivers before growth and development make the beauty of the unspoiled waterway a memory. — Lyndon B. Johnson

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

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

If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Our partnership has been built on four pillars The first pillar is peace. The second pillar is freedom. The third pillar is respect. The fourth pillar is cooperation. — Lyndon B. Johnson

Peace does not come just because we wish for it. Peace must be fought for. It must be built stone by stone. — Lyndon B. Johnson

All of us realize that war requires action. What is sometimes harder for us to realize is that peace and neutrality also require action. — Lyndon B. Johnson

In this age when there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war; we must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint. — Lyndon B. Johnson