Quotes from 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.

Law is the great civilizing machinery. It liberates the desire to build and subdues the desire to destroy.

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.

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.

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."

Democracy is a constant tension between truth and half-truth and, in the arsenal of truth, there is no greater weapon than fact.

Hug your friends tight, but your enemies tighter hug em so tight they cant wiggle.

A man can take a little bourbon without getting drunk, but if you hold his mouth open and pour in a quart, he's going to get sick on it.

Poverty has many roots, but the tap root is ignorance

Tell the Vietnamese they've got to draw in their horns or we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.

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

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.

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.

When things haven't gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope—some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.

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.

All I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.

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.

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.

Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don't think the press has understood me.

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