Background Image

...

I Dont Believe In Labels. I Want To Do The Best I Can, All The Time. I Want To Be Progressive Without Getting Both Feet Off The Ground At The Same Time. I Want To Be Prudent Without Having My Mind Closed To Anything That Is New Or Different. I Have Often Said That I Was Proud That I Was A Free Man First And An American Second, And A Public Servant Third And A Democrat Fourth, In That Order, And I Guess As A Democrat, If I Had To Takeplace A Label On Myself, I Would Want To Be A Progressive Who Is Prudent.

-Lyndon B. Johnson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Dont Believe In

Lyndon B. Johnson

...

I Dont Believe In Labels. I Want To Do The Best I Can, All The Time. I Want To Be Progressive Without Getting Both Feet Off The Ground At The Same Time. I Want To Be Prudent Without Having My Mind Closed To Anything That Is New Or Different. I Have Often Said That I Was Proud That I Was A Free Man First And An American Second, And A Public Servant Third And A Democrat Fourth, In That Order, And I Guess As A Democrat, If I Had To Takeplace A Label On Myself, I Would Want To Be A Progressive Who Is Prudent.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Lyndon B. Johnson

Books And Ideas Are The Most Effective Weapons Against Intolerance And Ignorance.

In My State, On The Basis Of The Separate But Equal Doctrine, We Have Made Enormous Strides Over The Years In The Education Of Both Races. Personally, I Think It Would Have Been Sounder Judgment To Allow That Progress To Continue Through The Process Of Natural Evolution. However, There Is No Point Crying About Spilt Milk.

I'll Have Those N**gers Voting Democratic For The Next 200 Years.

Education Is Not A Problem. Education Is An Opportunity.

We Will Not Have Served The Water Needs Of Americans If We Meet Only The Requirements Of Today's Population. A Prudent Nation Must Look Ahead And Plan For Tomorrow.

Nothing Is More Unjust, However Common, Than To Charge With Hypocrisy Him That Expresses Zeal For Those Virtues Which He Neglects To Practice; Since He May Be Sincerely Convinced Of The Advantages Of Conquering His Passions Without Having Yet Obtained The Victory As A Man May Be Confident Of The Advantages Of A Voyage Or A Journey, Without Having Courage Or Industry To Undertake It, And May Honestly Recommend To Others Those Attempts Which He Neglects Himself.

You Know, Doing What Is Right Is Easy. The Problem Is Knowing What Is Right.

If There Is One Word That Describes Our Form Of Society In America, It May Be The Word-voluntary.

He's A Nice Guy, But He Played Too Much Football With His Helmet Off.

Poverty Has Many Roots, But The Tap Root Is Ignorance.

There Are No Favorites In My Office. I Treat Them All With The Same General Inconsideration.

I'd Rather Give My Life Than Be Afraid To Give It.

Republicans Simply Don't Know How To Manage The Economy.

Today - Wealthier, More Powerful And More Able Than Ever Before In Our History - Our Nation Can Declare Another Essential Freedom.

I Feel Like I Just Grabbed A Big Juicy Worm With A Right Sharp Hook In The Middle Of It.

If I Could Get One Message To You It Would Be This: The Future Of This Country And The Welfare Of The Free World Depends Upon Our Success In Space. There Is No Room In This Country For Any But A Fully Cooperative, Urgently Motivated All-out Effort Toward Space Leadership. No One Person, No One Company, No One Government Agency, Has A Monopoly On The Competence, The Missions, Or The Requirements For The Space Program.

There Are No Problems We Cannot Solve Together, And Very Few That We Can Solve By Ourselves.

It May Be, It Just May Be, That Life As We Know It With Its Humanity Is More Unique Than Many Have Thought.

We Have Always Believed That Our People Can Stand On No Higher Ground Than The School Ground, Or Can Enter Any More Hopeful Room Than The Classroom. We Blend Time And Faith And Knowledge In Our Schools - Not Only To Create Educated Citizens, But Also To Shape The Destiny Of This Great Republic.

Freedom Is Not Enough.

I Cannot Say And No Man Could Say That No More Will Be Asked Of Us.

As The House Is Designed To Provide A Reflection Of The Mood Of The Moment, The Senate Is Meant To Reflect The Continuity Of The Past--to Preserve The Delicate Balance Of Justice Between The Majority's Whims And The Minority's Rights.

Watch Their Hands, Watch Their Eyes. Read Eyes. No Matter What A Man Is Saying To You, It's Not As Important As What You Can Read In His Eyes. The Most Important Thing A Man Has To Tell You Is What He's Not Telling You; The Most Important Thing He Has To Say Is What He's Trying Not To Say.

Of All The Problems Of Conservation, None Is More Urgent That The Polluted Air Which Endangers The American People. We Have Been Fortunate So Far. But We Have Seen That When Winds Fail To Blow, The Concentrations Of Poisonous Clouds Over Our Cities Can Become Perilous.

Poverty Must Not Be A Bar To Learning And Learning Must Offer An Escape From Poverty.

Ambition Is An Uncomfortable Companion Many Times. He Creates A Discontent With Present Surroundings And Achievements; He Is Never Satisfied But Always Pressing Forward To Better Things In The Future. Restless, Energetic, Purposeful, It Is Ambition That Makes Of The Creature A Real Man.

Life Is Never Easy. There Is Work To Be Done And Obligations To Be Met - Obligations To Truth, To Justice, And To Liberty.

Inspirational Life

For The First Time In Our History It Is Possible To Conquer Poverty.

But We Have Not Used Our Waters Well. Our Major Rivers Are Defiled By Noxious Debris. Pollutants From Cities And Industries Kill The Fish In Our Streams. Many Waterways Are Covered With Oil Slicks And Contain Growths Of Algae That Destroy Productive Life And Make The Water Unfit For Recreation. "polluted Water-no Swimming" Has Become A Familiar Sign On Too Many Beaches And Rivers. A Lake That Has Served Many Generations Of Men Now Can Be Destroyed By Man In Less Than One Generation.

Doing The Right Thing Is Not The Problem. Knowing What The Right Thing Is, That's The Challenge.

Education Is The Key To Opportunity In Our Society, And The Equality Of Educational Opportunity Must Be The Birthright Of Every Citizen.

Way Back Last Summer I Asked Some Of The Most Outstanding Educational Minds In This Nation To Tackle This Problem. I Gave Them A Single Instruction: Find Out How We Can Best Invest Each Education Dollar So That It Will Do The Most Good. Your Support And The Support Of Every Leading Education Group Proves That They Did Their Job Better Than I Had Hoped, Because For The First Time We Have Succeeded In Finding Goals Which Unite Us Rather Than Divide Us.

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.

...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.

We Decided That Our First Job Was To Help The Schools Serving The Children From The Very Lowest Income Groups. Those Families Constitute The Number One Burden, The Number One Burden In This Nation On The School Systems.

The American Indian, Once Proud And Free, Is Torn Now Between White And Tribal Values; Between The Politics And Language Of The White Man And His Own Historic Culture. His Problems, Sharpened By Years Of Defeat And Exploitation, Neglect And Inadequate Effort, Will Take Many Years To Overcome.

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.

Government Is Best Which Is Closest To The People. Yet That Belief Is Betrayed By Those State And Local Officials Who Engage In Denying The Right Of Citizens To Vote. Their Actions Serve Only To Assure That Their State Governments And Local Governments Shall Be Remote From The People, Least Representative Of The People's Will And Least Responsive To The People's Wishes.

Faith Builds, Cynicism Destroys.

Every Funeral May Justly Be Considered As A Summons To Prepare For That State Into Which It Shows Us That We Must Some Time Enter; And The Summons Is More Loud And Piercing As The Event Of Which It Warns Us Is At Less Distance. To Neglect At Any Time Preparation For Death Is To Sleep On Our Post At A Siege; But To Omit It In Old Age Is To Sleep At An Attack.

We Preach The Virtues Of Democracy Abroad. We Must Practice Its Duties Here At Home. Voting Is The First Duty Of Democracy.

We Of The United States Of America Consider Ourselves Blessed. We Have Much To Give Thanks For. But The Gift Of Providence That We Really Cherish Is That We Were Given As Our Neighbors On This Great, Wonderful Continent, The People And The Nation Of Canada.

To Hunger For Use And To Go Unused Is The Worst Hunger Of All.

If We Fail Now, Then We Will Have Forgotten In Abundance What We Learned In Hardship: That Democracy Rests On Faith; Freedom Asks More Than It Gives; And The Judgment Of God Is Harshest On Those Who Are Most Favored.

Each Year More Than 100,000 High School Graduates, With Proved Ability, Do Not Enter College Because They Cannot Afford It. And If We Cannot Educate Today's Youth, What Will We Do In 1970 When Elementary Enrollment Will Be 5 Million Greater Than 1960? And High School Enrollment Will Rise By 5 Million. College Enrollment Will Increase By More Than 3 Million.

Whoever Won't Fight When The President Calls Him, Deserves To Be Kicked Back In His Hole And Kept There.

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.

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.

There's Something Special For Everyone To Do. Remember, No Experience Is A Bad Experience Unless You Gain Nothing From It.

The Exercise Of Power In This Century Has Meant For All Of Us In The United States Not Arrogance, But Agony.

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.

Being President Is Like Being A Jackass In A Hailstorm. There's Nothing To Do But To Stand There And Take It.

The Great Society Is A Place Where Every Child Can Find Knowledge To Enrich His Mind And To Enlarge His Talents. It Is A Place Where The City Of Man Serves Not Only The Needs Of The Body And The Demands Of Commerce But The Desire For Beauty And The Hunger For Community. It Is A Place Where Men Are More Concerned With The Quality Of Their Goals Than The Quantity Of Their Goods.

There Is Something More Important Than Any Ultimate Weapon. That Is The Ultimate Position-the Position Of Total Control Over Earth That Lies Somewhere Out In Space. That Is . . . The Distant Future, Though Not So Distant As We May Have Thought. Whoever Gains That Ultimate Position Gains Control, Total Control, Over The Earth, For The Purposes Of Tyranny Or For The Service Of Freedom

And Americans Have Always Stood Ready To Pay The Cost In Energy And Treasure Which Are Needed To Make Those Goals A Reality.

I Want Real Loyalty. I Want Someone Who Will Kiss My Ass In Macy's Window, And Say It Smells Like Roses.

It's The Price Of Leadership To Do The Thing You Believe Has To Be Done At The Time It Must Be Done.

A Perpetual Conflict With Natural Desires Seems To Be The Lot Of Our Present State. In Youth We Require Something Of The Tardiness And Frigidity Of Age; And In Age We Must Labour To Recall The Fire And Impetuosity Of Youth; In Youth We Must Learn To Respect, And In Age To Enjoy.

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.

Taxation Without Representation

An Unfolding Technology Has Increased Our Economic Strength And Added To The Convenience Of Our Lives. But That Same Technology-we Know Now-carries Danger With It. From The Great Smoke Stacks Of Industry And From The Exhausts Of Motors And Machines, 130 Million Tons Of Soot, Carbon And Grime Settle Over The People And Shroud The Nation's Cities Each Year. From Towns, Factories, And Stockyards, Wastes Pollute Our Rivers And Streams, Endangering The Waters We Drink And Use.

Yesterday Is Not Ours To Recover, But Tomorrow Is Ours To Win Or Lose.

You Know When You're Milking A Cow And You Have All That Foamy White Milk In The Bucket And You're Just About Through, When All Of A Sudden The Cow Switches Her Tail Through A Pile Of Manure And Slaps It Into That Foamy White Milk. That's Bill Fulbright.

I May Not Worry As Much As Prime Minister Eshkol Does About Israel, But I Worry As Deeply.

This Congress Did More To Uplift Education, More To Attack Disease In This Country And Around The World, And More To Conquer Poverty Than Any Other Session In All American History, And What More Worthy Achievements Could Any Person Want To Have? For It Was The Congress That Was More True Than Any Other Congress To Thomas Jefferson's Belief That: 'the Care Of Human Life And Happiness Is The First And Only Legitimate Objective Of Good Government.'

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.

America Has Not Always Been Kind To Its Artists And Scholars. Somehow The Scientists Always Seem To Get The Penthouse While The Arts And Humanities Get The Basement.

It Now Seems To Be Quite A Thing To Pull Down The Mighty From Their Seats And Roll Them In The Mire. This Practice Deserves Pronounced Condemnation. Hero Worship Is A Tremendous Force In Uplifting And Strengthening. Humanity, Let Us Have Our Heroes. Let Us Continue To Believe That Some Have Been Truly Great.

The Great Society Is A Place Where Men Are More Concerned With The Quality Of Their Goods Than With The Quantity Of Their Goods.

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.

Boys, It Is Just Like The Alamo. Somebody Should Have By God Helped Those Texans. I'm Going To Vietnam.

The Last Thing I Wanted To Do Was To Be A Wartime President.

I Don't Think That I Need To Tell You How Important To The Outcome Of That Race Is The Education Legislation That Is Now Before The Congress. I Hope That It Is Important Enough That Most Of You Have Studied It In Detail. I Hope That You Understand That It Represents The Very Best Thinking That The Leading Educators Of This Country Can Produce.

For This Is What America Is All About. It Is The Uncrossed Desert And The Unclimbed Ridge. It Is The Star That Is Not Reached And The Harvest That Is Sleeping In The Unplowed Ground.

Law Is The Great Civilizing Machinery. It Liberates The Desire To Build And Subdues The Desire To Destroy.

The Crotch, Down Where Your Nuts Hang, Is Always A Little Too Tight.

[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.

Most Of All We Need An Education Which Will Create An Educated Mind. This Is A Mind Not Simply A Repository Of Information And Skills, But A Mind That Is A Source Of Creative Skepticism, Characterized By A Willingness To Challenge Old Assumptions And To Be Challenged, A Spaciousness Of Outlook, And Convictions That Are Deeply Held, But Which New Facts And New Experiences Can Always Modify.

New Experiences

True Poverty Does Not Come From God.

Never Miss An Opportunity To Say A Word Of Congratulation Upon Anyone's Achievement.

Congratulations

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 Even Know Well Enough To Hate. Therefore, To Know War Is To Know That There Is Still Madness In The World.

The Purposeful Many Need Not And Will Not Bow To The Willful Few.

How Incredible It Is That In This Fragile Existence We Should Hate And Destroy One Another. There Are Possibilities Enough For All Who Will Abandon Mastery Over Others To Pursue Mastery Over Nature. There Is World Enough For All To Seek Their Happiness In Their Own Way.

We Have The Opportunity To Move Not Only Toward The Rich Society And The Powerful Society, But Upward To The Great Society.

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.

Nothing So Challenges The American Spirit As Tackling The Biggest Job On Earth....americans Are Stimulated By The Big Job; The Panama Canal, Boulder Dam, Grand Coulee, Lower Colorado River Developments, The Tallest Building In The World, The Mightiest Battleship.

Jack Was Out Kissing Babies While I Was Out Passing Bills. Someone Had To Tend The Store.

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.

I Am Concerned About The Whole Man. I Am Concerned About What The People, Using Their Government As An Instrument And A Tool, Can Do Toward Building The Whole Man, Which Will Mean A Better Society And A Better World.

Every Night Before I Turn Out The Lights To Sleep, I Ask Myself This Question: Have I Done Everything That I Can.... Have I Done Enough?

The Thing I Would Like To Do Most Is To Find Somehow To Bring Peace To The World. It Has Eluded Me.

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.

It Is Not Uncommon For Those Who At Their First Entrance Into The World Were Distinguished For Attainments Or Abilities, To Disappoint The Hopes Which They Had Raised, And To End In Neglect And Obscurity That Life Which They Began In Honour. To The Long Catalogue Of The Inconveniences Of Old Age, Which Moral And Satirical Writers Have So Copiously Displayed, May Be Often Added The Loss Of Fame.

The Law Cannot Save Those Who Deny It But Neither Can The Law Serve Any Who Do Not Use It. The History Of Injustice And Inequality Is A History Of Disuse Of The Law.

When I Was A Boy We Didn't Wake Up With Vietnam And Have Cyprus For Lunch And The Congo For Dinner.

We Have Heard All Of Our Lives How, After The Civil War Was Over, The South Went Back To Straighten Itself Out And Make A Living Again. It Was For Many Years A Voiceless Part Of The Government. The Balance Of Power Moved Away From It--to The North And The East. The Problems Of The North And The East Became The Big Problem Of The Country And Nobody Paid Much Attention To The Economic Unbalance The South Had Left As Its Only Choice.

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.

He's Got Great Vision. If He Can Get Outside, He Can Take It All The Way. That's What We Were Worried About.

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.

We Need To Remember That The Separation Of Church And State Must Never Mean The Separation Of Religious Values From The Lives Of Public Servants. . . If We Who Serve Free Men Today Are To Differ From The Tyrants Of This Age, We Must Balance The Powers In Our Hands With God In Our Hearts.

You've Got To Work Things Out In The Cloakroom, And When You've Got Them Worked Out, You Can Debate A Little Before You Vote.

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 Mask On His Face. They Are Both More Or Less What The Law Declares Them: Lawbreakers, Destroyers Of Constitutional Rights And Liberties And Ultimately Destroyers Of A Free America.

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.

I Shall Never Forget The Faces Of The Boys And The Girls In That Little Welhausen Mexican School, And I Remember Even Yet The Pain Of Realizing And Knowing Then That College Was Closed To Practically Every One Of Those Children Because They Were Too Poor. And I Think It Was Then That I Made Up My Mind That This Nation Could Never Rest While The Door To Knowledge Remained Closed To Any American.

'human History, ' H.g. Wells Once Wrote, 'becomes More And More A Race Between Education And Catastrophe.' You And I Cannot Be Indifferent To The Outcome Of That Race. We Care Deeply About The Winner. Because We Do Care So Deeply About The Winner, That Is Why We Are All In The East Room Of The White House Today.

If One Morning I Walked On Top Of The Water Across The Potomac River, The Headline That Afternoon Would Read: 'president Can't Swim.'

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.

...where Legitimate Opportunities Are Closed, Illegitimate Opportunities Are Seized. Whatever Opens Opportunity And Hope Will Help To Prevent Crime And Foster Responsibility.

The Future Holds Little Hope For Any Government Where The Present Holds No Hope For The People.

You Might Say That Lyndon Johnson Is A Cross Between A Baptist Preacher And A Cowboy.

If Anybody Has Any Idea Of Hoarding Our Silver Coins, Let Me Say This. Treasury Has A Lot Of Silver On Hand, And It Can Be, And It Will Be Used To Keep The Price Of Silver In Line With Its Value In Our Present Silver Coin. There Will Be No Profit In Holding Them Out Of Circulation For The Value Of Their Silver Content.

I Want To Make A Policy Statement. I Am Unabashedly In Favor Of Women.

The American City Should Be A Collection Of Communities Where Every Member Has A Right To Belong. It Should Be A Place Where Every Man Feels Safe On His Streets And In The House Of His Friends. It Should Be A Place Where Each Individual's Dignity And Self-respect Is Strengthened By The Respect And Affection Of His Neighbors. It Should Be A Place Where Each Of Us Can Find The Satisfaction And Warmth Which Comes From Being A Member Of The Community Of Man. This Is What Man Sought At The Dawn Of Civilization. It Is What We Seek Today.

Nothing Is More Despicable Than The Old Age Of A Passionate Man. When The Vigour Of Youth Fails Him, And His Amusements Pall With Frequent Repetition, His Occasional Rage Sinks By Decay Of Strength Into Peevishness; That Peevishness, For Want Of Novelty And Variety, Becomes Habitual; The World Falls Off From Around Him, And He Is Left, As Homer Expresses It, To Devour His Own Heart In Solitude And Contempt.

I Believe The Destiny Of Your Generation - And Your Nation - Is A Rendezvous With Excellence.

...in The Decline Of Life Shame And Grief Are Of Short Duration; Whether It Be That We Bear Easily What We Have Borne Long; Or That, Finding Ourselves In Age Less Regarded, We Less Regard Others; Or, That We Look With Slight Regard Upon Afflictions To Which We Know That The Hand Of Death Is About To Put An End.

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.

Every Man Of Any Education Would Rather Be Called A Rascal, Than Accused Of Deficiency In The Graces.

Just Like The Alamo, Somebody Damn Well Needed To Go To Their Aid. Well, By God, I'm Going To Viet Nam's Aid!

If Government Is To Serve Any Purpose It Is To Do For Others What They Are Unable To Do For Themselves.

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.

When I Was Young, Poverty Was So Common That We Didn't Know It Had A Name.

Not Merely A Nation But A Nation Of Nations.

United States Of America

We Must Change To Master Change.

If You're Not Listening, You're Not Learning.

In Asia We Face An Ambitious And Aggressive China, But We Have The Will And We Have The Strength To Help Our Asian Friends Resist That Ambition. Sometimes Our Folks Get A Little Impatient. Sometimes They Rattle Their Rockets Some, And They Bluff About Their Bombs. But We Are Not About To Send American Boys 9 Or 10,000 Miles Away From Home To Do What Asian Boys Ought To Be Doing For Themselves.

First, This Law - The National Defense Education Act - Ended Years And Years Of Debate About One Controversial Question: 'shall The Federal Government, With All Its Massive Resources, Get Directly Involved In Aiding American Education?' The Answer This Law Gave Was A Loud 'yes!' - And Thus We Paved The Way For A New Era Of Support For Education In America. This Law, In Fact, Helped Make Possible More Than 50 New Education Laws Passed In My Administration.

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.

The Experts Spent A Great Deal Of Time And Study Working Out A Formula Which Would Be Fair To Every State And Fair To Every County And Fair To Every Child, And Would Put The Education Dollar Where That Dollar Is Needed Most, Now.

The Men Who Have Guided The Destiny Of The United States Have Found The Strength For Their Tasks By Going To Their Knees. This Private Unity Of Public Men And Their God Is An Enduring Source Of Reassurance For The People Of America.

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.

The Fact That A Man Is A Newspaper Reporter Is Evidence Of Some Flaw Of Character.

Every President Wants To Do Right.

The Great Society Is A Place Where Every Child Can Find Knowledge To Enrich His Mind And Enlarge His Talents.

Our Understanding Of How To Live With One Another Is Still Far Behind Our Knowledge Of How To Destroy One Another.

Democracy Is A Constant Tension Between Truth And Half-truth And, In The Arsenal Of Truth, There Is No Greater Weapon Than Fact.

I'm The Only President You've Got.

I Have Learned That Only Two Things Are Necessary To Keep One's Wife Happy. First, Let Her Think She's Having Her Own Way. And Second, Let Her Have It.

Hug Your Friends Tight, But Your Enemies Tighter ? Hug ?em So Tight They Can?t Wiggle.

I Want Every Family In America To Have A Carpet On The Floor And A Picture On The Wall. After Bread, You've Got To Have A Picture On The Wall.

The American West Is Just Arriving At The Threshold Of Its Greatness And Growth. Where The West Of Yesterday Is Glamorized In Our Fiction, The Future Of The American West Now Is Both Fabulous And Factual.

Every Man Should Know That His Conversations, His Correspondence, And His Personal Life Are Private.

If One Little Old General In Shirt Sleeves Can Take Saigon, Think About 200 Million Chinese Comin' Down Those Trails. No Sir, I Don't Want To Fight Them.

It (the Heart) Is Supposed In Popular Language, To Be The Seat Sometimes, Of Courage, Sometimes Of Affection, Sometimes Of Honesty, Or Baseness.

We Are Not About To Send American Boys 9 Or 10 Thousand Miles Away From Home To Do What Asian Boys Ought To Be Doing For Themselves.

The Final Conquest Of Poverty Is Within Our Grasp.

I Will Not Seek, And I Will Not Accept The Nomination Of My Party For Another Term As Your President.

I Am A Compromiser And Maneuverer. I Try To Get Something. That's The Way Our System Works.

In 1838, Mirabeau B. Lamar, The Second President Of The Republic Of Texas And The Father Of Texas Education, Declared: 'the Cultivated Mind Is The Guardian Genius Of Democracy. It Is The Only Dictator That Free Man Acknowledges. It Is The Only Security That Free Man Desires.'

While You're Saving Your Face, You're Losing Your Ass.

There Is Nothing That Exasperates People More Than A Display Of Superior Ability Or Brilliance In Conversation. They Seem Pleased At The Time, But Their Envy Makes Them Curse The Conversationalist In Their Heart.

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.

It Is The Genius Of Our Constitution That Under Its Shelter Of Enduring Institutions And Rooted Principles There Is Ample Room For The Rich Fertility Of American Political Invention.

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.

Come Now. Let Us Reason Together.

Voting Is The First Duty Of Democracy.

All I Have I Would Have Given Gladly Not To Be Standing Here Today.

I Believe In The American Tradition Of Separation Of Church And State Which Is Expressed In The First Amendment To The Constitution. By My Office - And By Personal Conviction - I Am Sworn To Uphold That Tradition.

No Man Should Think That Peace Comes Easily. Peace Does Not Come By Merely Wanting It, Or Shouting For It, Or Marching Down Main Street For It. Peace Is Built Brick By Brick, Mortared By The Stubborn Effort And The Total Energy And Imagination Of Able And Dedicated Men. And It Is Built In The Living Faith That, In The End, Man Can And Will Master His Own Destiny.

We Have Entered An Age In Which Education Is Not Just A Luxury Permitting Some Men An Advantage Over Others. It Has Become A Necessity Without Which A Person Is Defenseless In This Complex, Industrialized Society. We Have Truly Entered The Century Of The Educated Man.

There Are Two Kinds Of Speeches: The Mother Hubbard Speech, Which, Like The Garment, Covers Everything But Touches Nothing, And The French Bathing Suit Speech, Which Covers Only The Essential Points.

Better To Have Him Inside The Tent Pissing Out, Than Outside The Tent Pissing In.

If A Single Act Of Folly Was More Responsible For This Explosion Than Any Other It Was The Arbitrary And Dangerous Announced Decision That The Straits Of Tiran Would Be Closed. The Right Of Innocent, Maritime Passage Must Be Preserved For All Nations

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.

If We Are To Live Together In Peace, We Must Come To Know Each Other Better.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel? We Don't Even Have A Tunnel; We Don't Even Know Where The Tunnel Is.

Reporters Are Like Puppets. They Simply Respond To The Pull Of The Most Powerful Strings.

Emancipation Was A Proclamation, But Not A Fact.

Success Only Feeds The Appetite Of Aggression.

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.

Once We Considered Education A Public Expense; We Know Now That It Is A Public Investment.

What Convinces Is Conviction. Believe In The Argument You're Advancing. If You Don't You're As Good As Dead. The Other Person Will Sense That Something Isn't There, And No Chain Of Reasoning, No Matter How Logical Or Elegant Or Brilliant, Will Win Your Case For You.

We Must Open The Doors Of Opportunity. We Must Equip Our People To Walk Through Those Doors.

We Know That They Cannot Bear Their Share Of The Taxes To Help Pay For Their Education. And Unless Those Children Get A Good Education We Know That They Become Dropouts And They Become Delinquents And They Become Taxeaters Instead Of Taxpayers. We Know That They Will Join The Unemployed. That Is Why We Put Top Priority On Breaking The Vicious Cycle That Today Threatens The Future Of 5 Million Children In This Great Land Of Opportunity Which We Talk About So Much.

But If Future Generations Are To Remember Us More With Gratitude Than With Sorrow, We Must Achieve More Than Just The Miracles Of Technology. We Must Also Leave Them A Glimpse Of The World As God Really Made It, Not Just As It Looked When We Got Through With It.

The Best Way To Begin Disarming Is To Begin-and The United States Is Ready To Conclude Firm Agreements In These Areas And To Consider Any Other Reasonable Proposal.

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.

Every Gift Contains A Danger. Whatever Gift We Have We Are Compelled To Express. And If The Expression Of That Gift Is Blocked, Distorted, Or Merely Allowed To Languish, Then The Gift Turns Against Us, And We Suffer.

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.

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 Homeand We Aim To Get It.

Bias And Prejudice

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.

I Am Afraid, ... That Health Begins, After Seventy, And Often Long Before, To Have A Meaning Different From That Which It Had At Thirty. But It Is Culpable To Murmur At The Established Order Of The Creation, As It Is Vain To Oppose It. He That Lives, Must Grow Old; And He That Would Rather Grow Old Than Die, Has God To Thank For The Infirmities Of Old Age.

Today Our Problem Is Not Making Miracles, But Managing Them.

Organized Crime Constitutes Nothing Less Than A Guerilla War Against Society.

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.

There Are Some, I Know, Who See Beautification As A Frill, As An Extra, Or As Something That Is Luxurious Enough To Postpone. Well, They Make Me Impatient Because I Am Convinced That Beauty And Order In Our Environment Are Not Frills. I Am Convinced That They Are Urgent Necessities Because They Will Determine Whether Our Grandchildren Can Live In A Decent Land Or Whether They Will Be Surrounded By Glittering Junkheaps.

You Never Want To Give A Man A Present When He's Feeling Good. You Want To Do It When He's Down.

If We Quit Vietnam, Tomorrow We'll Be Fighting In Hawaii, And Next Week We'll Have To Fight In San Francisco.

I'm A Powerful S.o.b., You Know That?

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."

It Means An Educational System Which Does Not Simply Equip The Students To Adjust To Society, But Which Enables The Student To Challenge And To Modify, And At Times Reject, If Necessary, The Received Wisdom Of His Elders.

John Ain't Been Worth A Damn Since He Started Wearing $300 Suits.

American Politics

I Am Going To Build The Kind Of Nation That President Roosevelt Hoped For, President Truman Worked For, And President Kennedy Died For.

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.

Above The Pyramid On The Great Seal Of The United States It Says In Latin: "god Has Favored Our Undertaking." God Will Not Favor Everything That We Do. It Is Rather Our Duty To Divine His Will.

'if You Let A Bully Come In And Chase You Out Of Your Front Yard, He'll Be On Your Porch And The Next Day He'll Rape Your Wife In Your Own Bed.

The Noblest Search Is The Search For Excellence.

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.

In Our Home There Was Always Prayer - Aloud, Proud And Unapologetic.

An Unspoiled River Is A Very Rare Thing In This Nation Today. Their Flow And Vitality Have Been Harnessed By Dams And Too Often They Have Been Turned Into Open Sewers By Communities And By Industries. It Makes Us All Very Fearful That All Rivers Will Go This Way Unless Somebody Acts Now To Try To Balance Our River Development.

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.

Trending Author

Chester A. Arthur

Antoine Lavoisier

Barbara Cartland

Category