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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.

-Lyndon B. Johnson

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It Is Not Uncommon

Lyndon B. Johnson

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

You Ain't Learnin' Nothin' When You're Talkin'.

Inspirational Presidential

This Civil Rights Act Is A Challenge To All Of Us To Go To Work In Our Communities And Our States, In Our Homes And In Our Hearts, To Eliminate The Last Vestiges Of Injustice In Our Beloved Country. So Tonight I Urge Every Public Official, Every Religious Leader, Every Business And Professional Man, Every Working Man, Every Housewife - I Urge Every American - To Join In This Effort To Bring Justice And Hope To All Our People, And To Bring Peace To Our Land.

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.

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.

We Must Open The Doors Of Opportunity.

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.'

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.

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

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

I Do Not Find It Easy To Send The Flower Of Our Youth, Our Finest Young Men, Into Battle.

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

Our Objective In South Vietnam Has Never Been The Annihilation Of The Enemy. It Has Been To Bring About A Recognition In Hanoi That Its Objective - Taking Over The South By Force - Could Not Be Achieved.

A Few Years Make Such Havoc In Human Generations That We Soon See Ourselves Deprived Of Those With Whom We Entered The World, And Whom The Participation Of Pleasures Or Fatigues Had Endeared To Our Remembrance.

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.

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

Not Now, Or Not There, Or Too Much, Or Not At All.

It Will Help At Every State Along The Road To Learning. For The Pre-school Years We Will Help Needy Children Become Aware Of The Excitement Of Learning.

Throughout My Entire Public Career I Have Followed The Personal Philosophy That I Am A Free Man, An American, A Public Servant, And A Member Of My Party, In That Order Always And Only.

There Is No Issue Of States' Rights Or National Rights. There Is Only The Struggle For Human Rights.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Our Purpose In Vietnam Is To Prevent The Success Of Aggression. It Is Not Conquest, It Is Not Empire, It Is Not Foreign Bases, It Is Not Domination. It Is, Simply Put, Just To Prevent The Forceful Conquest Of South Vietnam By North Vietnam.

Congratulations

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.

For It Was Only After I Could Become President Of This Country That I Could Really See In All Its Hopeful And Troubling Implications Just How Much The Hopes Of Our Citizens And The Security Of Our Nation And The Real Strength Of Our Democracy Depended Upon The Learning And The Understanding Of Our People.

We Do Not Want An Expanding Struggle With Consequences, That No One Can Perceive, Nor Will We Bluster Or Bully Or Flaunt Our Power, But We Will Not Surrender And We Will Not Retreat, For Behind Our American Pledge Lies The Determination And Resources, I Believe, Of All Of The American Nation.

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

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

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

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

Voting Is The First Duty Of Democracy.

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.

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.

True Poverty Does Not Come From God.

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

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.

In Addition To Our Existing Programs, I Will Recommend A New Program For Schools And Students With A First-year Authorization Of $1,500 Million.

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.

We Believe, That Is, You And I, That Education Is Not An Expense. We Believe It Is An Investment.

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

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

We Americans Know - Although Others Appear To Forget - The Risk Of Spreading Conflict. We Still Seek No Wider War.

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.

This Is Not Johnson's War. This Is America's War. If I Drop Dead Tomorrow, This War Will Still Be With You.

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

Jerry Ford Is So Dumb He Can't Fart And Chew Gum At The Same Time.

Democrats Legislate; Republicans Investigate.

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.

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.

There Is No Excuse-and We Should Call A Spade A Spade-for Chemical Companies And Oil Refineries Using Our Major Rivers As Pipelines For Toxic Waste. There Is No Excuse For Communities To Use Other People's Rivers As A Dump For Their Raw Sewage.

As Man Draws Nearer To The Stars, Why Should He Not Also Draw Nearer To His Neighbor?

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.

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

No Nation In The World Has Had Greater Fortune Than Mine In Sharing A Continent With The People And The Nation Of Canada.

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

Mr. Speaker, At A Time When The Nation Is Again Confronted With Necessity For Calling Its Young Men Into Service In The Interestsof National Security, I Cannot See The Wisdom Of Denying Our Young Women The Opportunity To Serve Their Country.

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."

As We Maintain The Vigil Of Peace, We Must Remember That Justice Is A Vigil, Too - A Vigil We Must Keep In Our Own Streets And Schools And Among The Lives Of All Our People - So That Those Who Died Here On Their Native Soil Shall Not Have Died In Vain.

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.

The Family Is The Corner Stone Of Our Society. More Than Any Other Force It Shapes The Attitude, The Hopes, The Ambitions, And The Values Of The Child. And When The Family Collapses It Is The Children That Are Usually Damaged. When It Happens On A Massive Scale The Community Itself Is Crippled.

President Can't Swim.

We Cannot Have Government For All The People Until We First Make Certain It Is Government Of And By All The People.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Every Old Man Complains Of The Growing Depravity Of The World, Of The Petulance And Insolence Of The Rising Generation. He Recounts The Decency And Regularity Of Former Times, And Celebrates The Discipline And Sobriety Of The Age In Which His Youth Was Passed; A Happy Age Which Is Now No More To Be Expected, Since Confusion Has Broken In Upon The World, And Thrown Down All The Boundaries Of Civility And Reverence.

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

Of Those To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Asked.

Great Responsibility

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Let No One Ever Think For A Moment That National Debate Means National Division.

Peace Does Not Come Just Because We Wish For It. Peace Must Be Fought For. It Must Be Built Stone By Stone.

When The Burdens Of The Presidency Seem Unusually Heavy, I Always Remind Myself It Could Be Worse. I Could Be A Mayor.

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.

Many Have No Happier Moments Than Those That They Pass In Solitude, Abandoned To Their Own Imagination, Which Sometimes Puts Sceptres In Their Hands Or Miters On Their Heads, Shifts The Scene Of Pleasure With Endless Variety, Bids All The Forms Of Beauty Sparkle Before Them, And Gluts Them With Every Change Of Visionary Luxury.

We Still Seek No Wider War.

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.

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

Justice Requires Us To Remember That When Any Citizen Denies His Fellow, Saying, 'his Color Is Not Mine,' Or 'his Beliefs Are Strange And Different,' In That Moment He Betrays America, Though His Forebears Created This Nation.

...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.

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.

A President Roosevelt Comes Only Once In A Century. I Believe God Knew And Does Know Of The Need Of The World At This Moment. I Don't Believe President Roosevelt Is An Accident In Time, Or That It Is An Accident That He Is President For A Third Time. I Believe That Franklin D. Roosevelt Truly Is The Voice Of Liberty In The World.

I Don't Have Any Handicap. I Am All Handicap.

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.

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

The Prospect Of Penury In Age Is So Gloomy And Terrifying That Every Man Who Looks Before Him Must Resolve To Avoid It; And It Must Be Avoided Generally By The Science Of Sparing. For, Though In Every Age There Are Some Who, By Bold Adventures, Or By Favorable Accidents, Rise Suddenly To Riches, Yet It Is Dangerous To Indulge Hopes Of Such Rare Events; And The Bulk Of Mankind Must Owe Their Affluence To Small And Gradual Profits, Below Which Their Expense Must Be Resolutely Reduced.

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.

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.

It Is Very Seldom That Any One Is In Prison For An Ordinary Crime Unless Early In Life He Entered A Path That Almost Invariably Led To The Prison Gate. Most Of The Inmates Are The Children Of The Poor. In Many Instances They Are Either Orphans Or Half-orphans; Their Homes Were The Streets And Byways Of Big Cities, And Their Paths Naturally And Inevitably Took Them To Their Final Fate.

The Secretary Of Labor Is In Charge Of Finding You A Job, The Secretary Of The Treasury Is In Charge Of Taking Half The Money You Make Away From You, And The Attorney General Is In Charge Of Suing You For The Other Half.

Doing What's Right Isn't The Problem. It Is Knowing What's Right.

Sometimes Among Our More Sophisticated, Self-styled Intellectuals--and I Say Self-styled Advisedly; The Real Intellectual I Am Notsure Would Ever Feel This Way--some Of Them Are More Concerned With Appearance Than They Are With Achievement. They Are More Concerned With Style Then They Are With Mortar, Brick And Concrete. They Are More Concerned With Trivia And The Superficial Than They Are With The Things That Have Really Built America.

It Will Be Controlled When The People Of America, Through Their Elected Representatives, Demand The Right To Air That They And Their Children Can Breathe Without Fear..

We Did Not Choose To Be The Guardians Of The Gate, But There Is No One Else.

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.

Americans Have Always Built For The Future. That Is Why We Established Land Grant Colleges And Passed The Homestead Act To Open Our Western Lands More Than 100 Years Ago.

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.

...that Though They May Refuse To Grow Wise, They Must Inevitably Grow Old; ...that The Proper Solaces Of Age Are Not Music And Compliments, But Wisdom And Devotion; That Those Who Are So Unwilling To Quit The World Will Soon Be Driven From It; And That It Is Therefore In Their Interest To Retire While There Yet Remain A Few Hours Of Nobler Employments.

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.

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. ... Most, If Not All Of You, Have Very Deep Ties With The Land And With The People Of Israel, As I Do; For My Christian Faith Sprang From Yours. The Bible Stories Are Woven Into My Childhood Memories As The Gallant Struggle Of Modem Jews To Be Free Of Persecution Is Also Woven Into Our Souls.

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

Men Who Have Worked Together To Reach The Stars Are Not Likely To Descend Together Into The Depths Of War And Desolation.

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.

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.

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

In The Great Society, Work Shall Be An Outlet For Mans Interests And Desires. Each Individual Shall Have Full Opportunity To Use His Capacities In Employment Which Satisfies Personally And Contributes Generally To The Quality Of The Nations Life.

Come Now. Let Us Reason Together.

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

This Administration Here And Now Declares Unconditional War On Poverty.

Unconditional Love

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

The Roman Empire Controlled The World Because It Could Build Roads . . . The British Empire Was Dominant Because It Had Ships. In The Air Age We Were Powerful Because We Had Airplaines. Now The Communists Have Established A Foothold In Outer Space.

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.

Art Is A Nation's Most Precious Heritage. For It Is In Our Works Of Art That We Reveal To Ourselves And To Others The Inner Vision Which Guides Us As A Nation. And Where There Is No Vision, The People Perish.

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

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.

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.

Such Is The Condition Of Life That Something Is Always Wanting To Happiness. In Youth We Have Warm Hopes, Which Are Soon Blasted By Rashness And Negligence, And Great Designs Which Are Defeated By Inexperience. In Age, We Have Knowledge And Prudence, Without Spirit To Exert, Or Motives To Prompt Them; We Are Able To Plan Schemes, And Regulate Measures, But Have Not Time Remaining To Bring Them To Completion.

In A Nation Of Millions And A World Of Billions, The Individual Is Still The First And Basic Agent Of Change.

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.

The Cia Is Made Up Of Boys Whose Families Sent Them To Princeton But Wouldn't Let Them Into The Family Brokerage Business.

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

American Politics

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

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.

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.

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

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.

If The Purpose Of Lamentation Be To Excite Pity, It Is Surely Superfluous For Age And Weakness To Tell Their Plaintive Stories; For Pity Presupposes Sympathy, And A Little Attention Will Show Them, That Those Who Do Not Feel Pain Seldom Think That It Is Felt.

You Aren't Learning Anything When You're Talking.

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

Europe Has Been At Peace Since 1945. But It Is A Restless Peace Thats Shadowed By The Threat Of Violence. Europe Is Partitioned. An Unnatural Line Runs Through The Heart Of A Very Great And A Very Proud Nation [germany]. History Warns Us That Until This Harsh Division Has Been Resolved, Peace In Europe Will Never Be Secure. We Must Turn To One Of The Great Unfinished Tasks Of Our Generationand That Unfinished Task Is Making Europe Whole Again.

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.

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.

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.

All The Historians Are Harvard People. It Just Isn't Fair. Poor Old Hoover From West Branch, Iowa, Had No Chance With That Crowd;nor Did Andrew Jackson From Tennessee. Nor Does Lyndon Johnson From Stonewall, Texas. It Just Isn't Fair.

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.

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.

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

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

For Every Generation, There Is A Destiny. For Some, History Decides. For This Generation, The Choice Must Be Our Own. [...] Our Destiny In The Midst Of Change Will Rest On The Unchanged Character Of Our People, And On Their Faith.

This Is Not A Jungle War, But A Struggle For Freedom On Every Front Of Human Activity.

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.

'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.

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.

Lincoln Was Right About Not Fooling All The People All The Time. But Republicans Haven't Given Up Trying.

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.

I Believe We Can Continue The Great Society While We Fight In Vietnam.

One Hundred Years Ago, The Slave Was Freed. One Hundred Years Later, The Negro Remains In Bondage To The Color Of His Skin.

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.

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 Report To You That Our Country Is Challenged At Home And Abroad: That It Is Our Will That Is Being Tried And Not Our Strength; Our Sense Of Purpose And Not Our Ability To Achieve A Better America.

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.

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

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.

We Don't Propose To Sit Here In Our Rocking Chair With Our Hands Folded And Let The Communists Set Up Any Government In The Western Hemisphere.

We Do This In Order To Slow Down Aggression. We Do This To Increase The Confidence Of The Brave People Of South Vietnam Who Have Bravely Born This Brutal Battle For So Many Years With So Many Casualties. And We Do This To Convince The Leaders Of North Vietnam-and All Who Seek To Share Their Conquest-of A Simple Fact: We Will Not Be Defeated. We Will Not Grow Tired. We Will Not Withdraw Either Openly Or Under The Cloak Of A Meaningless Agreement.

It Is Important That The United States Remain A Two-party System. I'm A Fellow Who Likes Small Parties And The Republican Party Can't Be Too Small To Suit Me.

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

The Final Conquest Of Poverty Is Within Our Grasp.

Evil Acts Of The Past Are Never Rectified By Evil Acts Of The Present.

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.

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.

What We Won When All Of Our People United Just Must Not Now Be Lost In Suspicion, Distrust, Selfishness, And Politics Among Any Of Our People. Accordingly, I Shall Not Seek, And I Will Not Accept, The Nomination Of My Party For Another Term As Your President.

The Air Force Comes In Every Morning And Says, 'bomb, Bomb, Bomb' ... And Then The State Department Comes In And Says, 'not Now, Or Not There, Or Too Much, Or Not At All.'

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

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

What Convinces Is Conviction.

I'm Gonna Hunker Down Like A Jack Rabbit In A Dust Storm

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 Future Of Our Nation's Sake. Nothing Matters More To The Future Of Our Country: Not Our Military Preparedness - For Armed Might Is Worthless If We Lack The Brainpower To Build World 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.

Greater Love Hath No Man Than To Attend The Episcopal Church With His Wife.

For The Individual, Education Is The Path To Achievement And Fulfillment; For The Nation, It Is A Path To A Society That Is Not Only Free But Civilized; And For The World, It Is The Path To Peace - For It Is Education That Places Reason Over Force.

If You're I Politics And You Can't Tell When You Walk Into A Room Who's For You And Who's Against You, Then You're In The Wrong Line Of Work.

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

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.

You Know There Is No One In The World I Would Rather Sleep With Than Yuki.

All Of Us Realize That War Requires Action. What Is Sometimes Harder For Us To Realize Is That Peace And Neutrality Also Require Action.

So Far Are We Generally From Thinking What We Often Say Of The Shortness Of Life, That At The Time When It Is Necessarily Shortest We Form Projects Which We Delay To Execute, Indulge Such Expectations As Nothing But Along Train Of Events Can Gratify, And Suffer Those Passions To Gain Upon Us Which Are Only Excusable In The Prime Of Life.

The Hungry World Cannot Be Fed Until And Unless The Growth Of Its Resources And The Growth Of Its Population Come Into Balance. Each Man And Woman-and Each Nation-must Make Decisions Of Conscience And Policy In The Face Of This Great Problem.

Population Problem

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.

Every President Wants To Do Right.

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

Extremism Is The Pursuit Of The Presidency Is An Unpardonable Vice. Moderation In The Affairs Of The Nation Is The Highest Virtue.

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