Now we may have more preachers out there than we have drinkers. But a fellow told me a story one time about a man down in Kentucky, where they make bourbon. And he said you can take a jigger, or two jiggers, and get by all right. But if you try to take the whole bottle, why you have lost what you started with. So don’t try to take it too quick. And don’t try to do all of it at once.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
“Remarks to a Group of Southern Negroes,” speech (1965-04-02)
Quotations by:
Johnson, Lyndon
I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
“The Last Days of the President: LBJ in Retirement,” Atlantic Monthly (1973-07)
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. Nothing matters more to the future of our country: not military preparedness — for armed might is worthless if we lack the brain power to build a world of peace; not our productive economy — for we cannot sustain growth without trained manpower; not our democratic system of government — for freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
“Toward Full Educational Opportunity,” speech to Congress (1965-01-12)
The best way to kill a new idea is to put it in an old-line agency.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed (1964))
(Source)
On assigning his War on Poverty programs to a new office (the Office of Economic Opportunity), reporting directly to the White House, rather than spreading it through existing federal programs and departments like Labor; Agriculture; or Health, Education, and Welfare.
Quoted in Rowland Evans, Jr., and Robert Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power, ch. 19 "The Great Society" (1966).
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed (c. 1964))
You 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.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
Widely attributed to Johnson, and in keeping with his reputation as a wily legislator, but no actual source found.
People don’t support you because they like you. You can count on a person’s support only when you do something for him or something to him.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
(Source)
On support from Congress. An "embittered" comment made to Richard Nixon after Johnson had left the Presidency. Quoted in Richard Nixon, In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal, ch. 21 (1990).
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
No member of our generation who wasn’t a Communist or a dropout in the thirties is worth a damn.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
See Gracian.
If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice yo’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
In Bill Moyers, "What a Real President Was Like," Washington Post (13 Nov 1988)
That’s just the trouble, Sam Houston — it’s always my move. And damnit, I sometimes can’t tell whether I’m making the right move or not. Now take this Vietnam mess. How in the hell can anyone know for sure what’s right and what’s wrong, Sam?
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
In Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, ch. 1 (1969).
There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
Sometimes given as "You ain't learning anything when you're talking."
Don’t spit in the soup. We’ve all got to eat.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
Comment when he was U. S. Senate majority leader.
Son, in politics you’ve got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
(Attributed)
Quoted in Fawn Brodie, Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character, ch. 25 (1983). Reply to a reporter who asked him about his embracing Richard Nixon, after Nixon's 1958 vice presidential tour of South America, where Nixon had stood up to an angry crowd in Caracas, Venezuela. Johnson had previously referred to Nixon as "chicken shit."
But now Nixon has come along and everything I’ve worked for is ruined. There’s a story in the paper every day about him slashing another one of my Great Society programs. I can just see him waking up in the morning, making that victory sign of his and deciding which program to kill. It’s a terrible thing for me to sit by and watch someone else starve my Great Society to death. She’s getting thinner and thinner and uglier and uglier all the time; now her bones are beginning to stick out and her wrinkles are beginning to show. Soon she’ll be so ugly that the American people will refuse to look at her; they’ll stick her in a closet to hide her away and there she’ll die. And when she dies, I, too, will die.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
LBJ and the American Dream, ch. 10 (1971)
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Time (1973-02-05)
John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Address, Mitchell Field, New York (1964-05-09)
Dedication of JFK Cultural Center.
Let us have our heroes. Let us continue to believe that some have been truly great; that it lies within human ability to overcome temptations and trials; that it is sublime to suffer and be strong. Petty biographers with inferior souls and jealous hearts would rob us of these happy privileges. Sensationalism is alright for yellow journalism, but in biography we wish to see our famous men and women as they were and feel the power of the strength and beauty of their lives. Down with the debunking biographers.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
College essay
In Lyndon Baines Johnson: The Formative Years, ch. 6, Southwest Texas State College Press (1965).
You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: “Now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.” You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, “You are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe you have been completely fair. … This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity — not just legal equity but human ability — not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Commencement Address, Howard University (1965-06-04)
On Affirmative Action.
We live amid falling taboos. In our crowded little hour of history we have seen how the prejudice of religion no longer can bar the way to the White House. Some of you may live to see the day when the prejudice of sex no longer places the Presidency beyond the reach of a greatly gifted American lady. Long before them, I hope you will see a woman member of the Supreme Court of the United States. In Congress and in our State Legislatures we need more women to bring their sensitive experience to the shaping of our decisions.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Commencement Address, National Cathedral School (1962-06-05)
I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1963-11)
Rejecting the Secret Service's advice not to march publicly in John Kennedy's funeral procession. In William Manchester, The Death of a President (1967).
I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1964-03-04)
On the appointment of ten women to top posts, under his pledge to end a "stag government."
We know that most people’s intentions are good. We don’t question their motives; we’ve never said they’re unpatriotic, although they say some pretty ugly things about us. And we believe very strongly on preserving the right to differ in this country, and the right to dissent; and if I have done a good job of anything since I’ve been president, it’s to ensure that there are plenty of dissenters.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1967-11-17)
Quoted in Vietnam: A Television History, "Homefront USA" (1983)
There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous. He’s got to know them better than they know themselves. And then, on the basis of this knowledge, he’s got to build a system that stretches from the cradle to the grave, from the moment a bill is introduced to the moment it is officially enrolled as the law of the land.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment to Doris Kearns, in Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1976)
Whatever the laws may provide, however lofty may be their sentiments, a man without a vote is a man without protection; he is virtually helpless.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comments, U.S. Senate (1960-03-10)
(Source)
As Senate Majority Leader.
The only basis for fearing the votes of men is to fear those men themselves. To deny the right to vote is to increase those fears.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comments, U.S. Senate (1960-03-10)
(Source)
As Senate Majority Leader.
I pray that when historians write the story of this time in our lives, that it may be recorded that this President tried, tried to lead his Nation, tried to lead his Nation with justice and with compassion and with courage — and there was faith and there was firmness in his heart. May it further be written that the people of the United States cast out their doubts, took great pride in their achievements, and bravely made of this land and this world a brighter, happier place for all mankind. This is our choice. This is our decision. Let us all be greatly determined that this society shall survive and this society shall succeed. And what it should be will be for all time to come.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Convocation speech, Brown University (1964-09-28)
(Source)
I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved — the Great Society — in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs. All my hopes to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. All my dreams to provide education and medical care to the browns and the blacks and the lame and the poor. But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
In Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, ch. 9, (1976).
Conversation with the author.
It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.
We learned from Hitler at Munich that success only feeds the appetite of aggression.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Press conference (1965-07-28)
Defending his decision to to not withdraw US troops from Vietnam.
There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Press conference, Johnson City, Texas (1964-11-28)
Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissin’ down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Private comment to John Kenneth Galbraith (mid-1960s)
(Source)
Quoted in Galbraith, Name-Dropping, ch. 11 (1999).
It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Quoted in David Halberstam, book review, New York Times (1971-10-31)
(Source)
Review of the just-published Lyndon Johnson, Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963-1969, regarding the difficulty for him to fire FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover. Halberstam notes this as a Johnson quotation not found in the book, complaining that it's far too sanitized a retelling of Johnson's presidency. This is generally accepted as the earliest printed mention of the quotation.
Every President wants to do right.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Quoted in George Christian, The President Steps Down, ch. 1, sec. 3 (1970).
(Source)
Christian, who was Johnson's press secretary, says this was a frequent comment by Johnson, who would then go on to defend previous Administrations, Democratic and Republican, from the worst accusations of their then-detractors.
While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Quoted in Philip Geyelin, Lyndon B. Johnson and the World, ch. 6 (1966)
(Source)
Geyelin said the phrase came up during "an august gathering of his most distinguished advisers when the question arose whether to honor an apparent US commitment to a proposition which Congress seemed unlikely to accept. Face-saving, the President observed, was not his major purpose in life," followed by the quote.
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-04-30)
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House, Members of the Senate, my fellow Americans, all I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech before Congress (1963-11-27)
Five days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Congressional Record (House), Nov. 27, 1963, vol. 109, part 17, House Document 178, p. 22838, GPO (1963).
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. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have the right to vote. … Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes. … No law that we now have on the books … can insure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. … There is no Constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States’ rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech to Congress (1965-03-15)
Introducing the Voting Rights Act
As it was 189 years ago, so today the cause of America is a revolutionary cause. And I am proud this morning to salute you as fellow revolutionaries. Neither you nor I are willing to accept the tyranny of poverty, nor the dictatorship of ignorance, nor the despotism of ill health, nor the oppression of bias and prejudice and bigotry. We want change. We want progress. We want it both abroad and at home — and we aim to get it.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech to government summer interns (1965-08-04)
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Armistice Day, Brenham, Texas (1939-11-11)
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.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Chamber of Commerce Barbeque, Smithville, Texas (1939-09-15)
I believe that the essence of government lies with unceasing concern for the welfare and dignity and decency and innate integrity of life for every individual. I don’t like to say this and wish I didn’t have to add these words to make it clear but I will — regardless of color, creed, ancestry, sex or age.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Civil Rights symposium, LBJ Library, Austin, Texas (1972-12-12)
We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Consumer Advisory Council, Washington, DC (1963-12-13)
(Source)
This Administration has declared unconditional war on poverty and I have come here this morning to ask all of you to enlist as volunteers. Members of all parties are welcome to our tent. Members of all races ought to be there. Members of all religions should come and help us now to strike the hammer of truth against the anvil of public opinion again and again until the ears of this Nation are open, until the hearts of this Nation are touched, and until the conscience of America is awakened.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Convention of Amalgamated Clothing Workers, New York (1964-05-09)
(Source)
In the crisis of this hour — as in all others that we have faced since our Nation began — there are plenty of recommendations on how to get out of trouble cheaply and fast. Most of them in the last analysis really come down to this: Deny your responsibilities.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Democratic Party Dinner, Washington, DC (1967-10-07)
(Source)
Sometimes paraphrased "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."
I pray we are still a young and courageous nation, that we have not grown so old and so fat and so prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us — dollars and all.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, House of Representatives (1947-05-07)
I am persuaded that the people of the world have no grievances, one against the other. The hopes and desires of a man who tills the soil are about the same whether he lives on the banks of the Colorado or on the banks of the Danube.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, House of Representatives (1947-05-07)
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Illinois AFL-CIO Convention (1968)
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. To the extent that the Proclamation of Emancipation is not fulfilled in fact, to that extent we shall have fallen short of assuring freedom to the free.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Memorial Day, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (1963-05-30)
(Source)
For as the problem of civil rights has grown in urgency it has also grown in complexity. We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, National Urban League, New York (1964-12-10)
(Source)
The world has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to brotherhood.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, New York City (1963-12-17)
Johnson used this phrase in several speeches around this time, e.g., in a speech at the Pageant of Peace Ceremonies, Washington, DC (22 Dec 1963): "We hope that the world will not narrow into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood." Alternate: "We live in a world that has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to brotherhood."
One hundred and eighty-eight years ago this week a small band of valiant men began a long struggle for freedom. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor not only to found a nation, but to forge an ideal of freedom — not only for political independence, but for personal liberty — not only to eliminate foreign rule, but to establish the rule of justice in the affairs of men. That struggle was a turning point in our history. Today in far corners of distant continents, the ideals of those American patriots still shape the struggles of men who hunger for freedom. This is a proud triumph. Yet those who founded our country knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Signing of the Civil Rights Act (1964-07-02)
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Signing of the Voting Rights Act (1965-08-06)
(Source)
The central fact of American civilization — one so hard for others to understand — is that freedom and justice and the dignity of man are not just words to us. We believe in them. Under all the growth and the tumult and abundance, we believe. And so, as long as some among us are oppressed — and we are part of that oppression — it must blunt our faith and sap the strength of our high purpose.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Signing of the Voting Rights Act (1965-08-06)
(Source)
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, UN General Assembly (1963-12-17)
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 (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1964-05-22)
(Source)
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.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1964-05-22)
(Source)
I taught school in the early days of my manhood and I think I know something about mothers. There is a thread of aspiration that runs strong in them. It is the fiber that has formed the most unselfish creatures who inhabit this earth. They want three things only; for their children to be fed, to be healthy, and to make the most of themselves.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Washington, D.C. Women’s Meeting (1963-07-09)
A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a sheet on his back and a mask on his face.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech, Washington, DC (1965-08-20)
This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
State of the Union address (1964-01-08)
War is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not know enough to hate. Therefore, to know war, is to know that there is still madness in the world.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
State of the Union address (1966-01-12)
(Source)
I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her way. And second, let her have it.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Toast, State Dinner for Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret (1965-11-17)
(Source)