Background Image

...

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.

-Lyndon B. Johnson

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Nothing Is More Despicable

Lyndon B. Johnson

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Lyndon B. Johnson

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.

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

Not Merely A Nation But A Nation Of Nations.

United States Of America

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.

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.

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 Must Not Only Protect The Country Side And Save It From Destruction, We Must Restore What Has Been Destroyed And Salvage The Beauty And Charm Of Our Cities ... Once Our Natural Splendor Is Destroyed, It Can Never Be Recaptured. And Once Man Can No Longer Walk With Beauty Or Wonder At Nature, His Spirit Will Wither And His Sustenance Be Wasted.

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.

We Are Now Embarked On Another Venture To Put The American Dream To Work In Meeting The New Demands Of A New Day. Once Again We Must Start Where Men Would Improve Their Society Have Always Known They Must Begin - With An Educational System Restudied, Reinforced, And Revitalized.

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.

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 Guns And The Bombs, The Rockets And The Warships, Are All Symbols Of Human Failure.

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.

We Can Draw Lessons From The Past, But We Cannot Live In It.

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.

Nothing Comes Free. Nothing. Not Even Good, Especially Not Good.

Any Man Who's Not Willing To Take Half A Loaf In A Negotiation, Well, That Man Never Went To Bed Hungry.

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.

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

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

Our Numbers Have Increased In Vietnam Because The Aggression Of Others Has Increased In Vietnam. There Is Not, And There Will Not Be, A Mindless Escalation.

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

American Politics

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

I'm The Only President You've Got.

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.

Democrats Legislate; Republicans Investigate.

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.

I Am Making A Collection Of The Things My Opponents Have Found Me To Be And, When This Election Is Over, I Am Going To Open A Museum And Put Them On Display.

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.

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

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.

The Family Is The Corner Stone Of Our Society.

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

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.

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.

New Laboratories And Centers Will Help Our Schools Lift Their Standards Of Excellence And Explore New Methods Of Teaching. These Centers Will Provide Special Training For Those Who Need And Deserve Special Treatment.

The Time Has Come When We Cannot Be So Careless. Unless We Do Better, We May Suffer Through A Stark Emergency Of The Environment. We May Create A Hostile World: A World To Bruise Ourselves Against; A World Of Sprawling Cities, Unplanned Or Badly Planned; A World Whose Water Is Full Of Sludge, Whose Winds Are Full Of Soot; A World Whose Landscape Has Been Totally Neglected, Stripped, Marred, And Wasted. All Of This Need Not Happen If We Choose Well, And Particularly If We Plan Well And If We Act Well.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

[the United States And Israel] Share Many Common Objectives ... Chief Of Which Is The Building Of A Better World In Which Every Nation Can Develop Its Resources And Develop Them In Freedom And Peace.

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.

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.

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

...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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A Third Place To Build The Great Society Is In The Classrooms Of America. There Your Children's Lives Will Be Shaped. Our Society Will Not Be Great Until Every Young Mind Is Set Free To Scan The Farthest Reaches Of Thought And Imagination. We Are Still Far From That Goal.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

It Is Always A Strain When People Are Being Killed. I Don't Think Anybody Has Held This Job Who Hasn't Felt Personally Responsible For Those Being Killed.

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.

For The College Years We Will Provide Scholarships To High School Students Of The Greatest Promise And Greatest Need And Guarantee Low-interest Loans To Students Continuing Their College Studies.

Come Now. Let Us Reason Together.

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.

Every Citizen Will Be Able, In His Productive Years When He Is Earning, To Insure Himself Against The Ravages Of Illness In His Old Age.

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

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

We Must Open The Doors Of Opportunity.

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

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.

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

So, I Would Appeal To My Fellow Americans By Saying, The Only Real Road To Progress For Free People Is Through The Process Of Law And That Is The Road That America Will Travel.

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

Congratulations

If The American People Don't Love Me, Their Descendants Will.

Education Will Not Cure All The Problems Of Society, But Without It No Cure For Any Problem Is Possible.

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

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.

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.

Curtis Le May Wants To Bomb Hanoi And Haiphong. You Know How He Likes To Go Around Bombing.

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

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.

It Is A Truism That Education Is No Longer A Luxury. Education In This Day And Age Is A Necessity.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I Know - From Personal Experience - That Abiding Values And Abundant Visions Are Learned In The Homes Of Our People.

The Russians Feared Ike. They Didn't Fear Me.

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.

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.

Emancipation Was A Proclamation, But Not A Fact.

Air Pollution Is A Threat To Health, Especially Of Older Persons. It Contributes Significantly To The Rising Rates Of Chronic Respiratory Ailments. It Stains Our Cities And Towns With Ugliness, Soiling And Corroding Whatever It Touches. Its Damage Extends To Our Forests And Farmlands As Well. The Economic Toll For Our Neglect Amounts To Billions Of Dollars Each Year.

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.

A President's Hardest Task Is Not To Do What Is Right, But To Know What Is Right.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

You Do Not Take A Person Who, For Years, Has Been Hobbled By Chains And Liberate Him, Bring Him Up To The Starting Line Of A Race And Then Say, "you Are Free To Compete With All The Others," And Still Justly Believe That You Have Been Completely Fair. We Seek Not Just Legal Equity But Human Ability, Not Just Equality As A Right And A Theory But Equality As A Fact And Equality As A Result.

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

We Still Seek No Wider War.

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

The Final Conquest Of Poverty Is Within Our Grasp.

In Modern Warfare There Are No Victors; There Are Only Survivors.

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.

We Have Talked Long Enough In This Country About Equal Rights. It Is Time Now To Write The Next Chapter - And To Write It In The Books Of Law.

The Job, Of Course, Will Never Be Finished. For A Nation, As For An Individual, Education Is A Perpetually Unfinished Journey, A Continuing Process Of Discovery.

Every American Citizen Must Have An Equal Right To Vote. There Is No Reason Which Can Excuse The Denial Of That Right. There Is No Duty Which Weighs More Heavily On Us Than The Duty We Have To Ensure That Right.

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.

We Must Change To Master Change.

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

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.

Education Is Not A Problem. Education Is An Opportunity.

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.

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.

It Is Happily And Kindly Provided That In Every Life There Are Certain Pauses, And Interruptions, Which Force Consideration Upon The Careless, And Seriousness Upon The Light, Points Of Time Where One Course Of Action Ends And Another Begins.

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

We Come To Reason, Not To Dominate. We Do Not Seek To Have Our Way, But To Find A Common Way.

I Don't Believe I'll Ever Get Credit For Anything I Do In Foreign Affairs, No Matter How Successful It Is, Because I Didn't Go To Harvard.

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.

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

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

When A Person Finds Themselves Predisposed To Complaining About How Little They Are Regarded By Others, Let Them Reflect How Little They Have Contributed To The Happiness Of Others.

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

I Am A Freeman, An American, A United States Senator, And A Democrat, In That Order.

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.

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.

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.

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

Education Is 'the Guardian Genius Of Our Democracy.' Nothing Really Means More To Our Future, Not Our Military Defenses, Not Our Missiles Or Our Bombers, Not Our Production Economy, Not Even Our Democratic System Of Government. For All Of These Are Worthless If We Lack The Brain Power To Support And Sustain Them.

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.

So Here Is The Great Society. It's The Time - And It's Going To Be Soon - When Nobody In This Country Is Poor.

This Right To Vote Is The Basic Right Without Which All Others Are Meaningless. It Gives People, People As Individuals, Control Over Their Own Destinies.

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.

Faith Builds, Cynicism Destroys.

All That Hubert Needs Over There Is A Gal To Answer The Phone And A Pencil With An Eraser On It.

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

Knowledge Is Of Two Kinds: We Know A Subject Itself, Or Know Where To Find It.

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.

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

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

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

Inspirational Presidential

'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.

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

You Have Your Own Difficulties. We Watch, With Friendly Confidence In Your Capacity To Merge Differences In The Grand Dream Of Canadian Design.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Wake Up 5 A.m. Some Mornings And Hear The Planes Coming In At National Airport And I Think They Are Bombing Me.

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

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

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.

We Can And Should Have An Abundance Of Trails For Walking, Cycling, And Horseback Riding, In And Close To Our Cities. In The Backcountry We Need To Copy The Great Appalachian Trail In All Parts Of America.

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.

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.

When The Family Collapses, It Is The Children That Are Usually Damaged. When It Happens On A Massive Scale, The Community Itself Is Crippled.

I Hear The Headlines On The Radio, See Them On Tv And Read Them In The Paper. When I Hear From The Men Out There, I Sometimes Don't Believe They Are Talking About The Same Situation.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

...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 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.

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.'

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.

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.

It's Too Bad, But The Way American People Are, Now That They Have All This Capability, Instead Of Taking Advantage Of It, They'll Probably Just Piss It All Away.

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 Kentuckywhere 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. I Don't Do Much Promising. I Tell What My Goals Are And Then I Try To Wrap It Up And Put A Blue Ribbon On It And Get It Delivered. We Say Put The Coonskin On The Wall.

Trending Author

Armistead Maupin

Category