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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.

-Lyndon B. Johnson

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Sometimes Among Our More

Lyndon B. Johnson

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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.

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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.

President Can't Swim.

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

The Family Is The Corner Stone Of Our Society.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Atomic Bomb Certainly Is The Most Powerful Of All Weapons, But It Is Conclusively Powerful And Effective Only In The Hands Of The Nation Which Controls The Sky.

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

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 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.

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

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.

The Debris Of Civilization Litters The Landscapes And Spoils The Beaches. Conservation's Concerns Now Is Not Only For Man's Enjoyment-but For Man's Survival.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Every Citizen, Regardless Of His Race, Creed, Or Color, Is Entitled To Equal Justice.

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

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.

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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.

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.

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 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.

[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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Congratulations

No One Has The Right To Use America's Rivers And America's Waterways, That Belong To All The People. As A Sewer. The Banks Of A River May Belong To One Man Or One Industry Or One State, But The Waters Which Flow Between The Banks Should Belong To All The People.

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.

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.

The Classroom - Not The Trench - Is The Frontier Of Freedom Now And Forevermore.

In A Thousand Unseen Ways We Have Drawn Shape And Strength From The Land.

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.

We Must Change To Master Change.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

This Generation Has Altered The Composition Of The Atmosphere On A Global Scale Through Radioactive Materials And A Steady Increase In Carbon Dioxide From The Burning Of Fossil Fuels. Entire Regional Airsheds, Crop Plant Environments, And River Basins Are Heavy With Noxious Materials. Motor Vehicles And Home Heating Plants, Municipal Dumps And Factories Continually Hurl Pollutants Into The Air We Breathe. Each Day Almost 50,000 Tons Of Unpleasant, And Sometimes Poisonous, Sulfur Dioxide Are Added To The Atmosphere, And Our Automobiles Produce Almost 300,000 Tons Of Other Pollutants.

The Poor Suffer Twice At The Rioter's Hands. First, His Destructive Fury Scars Their Neighborhood; Second, The Atmosphere Of Accommodation And Consent Is Changed To One Of Hostility And Resentment.

I Won't Have You Electioneering On My Doorstep. Every Time You Get In Trouble In Parliament You Run Over Here With Your Shirttail Hanging Out.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Best Fertilizer For A Piece Of Land Is The Footprints Of Its Owner.

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

Peace Is A Journey Of A Thousand Miles And It Must Be Taken One Step At A Time.

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.

Faith Builds, Cynicism Destroys.

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.

...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.

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

I'll Tell You What's At The Bottom Of It. If You Can Convince The Lowest White Man He's Better Than The Best Colored Man, He Won't Notice You're Picking His Pocket. Hell, Give Him Somebody To Look Down On, And He'll Empty His Pockets For You.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Great Responsibility

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Scarcely Any Law Of Our Redeemer Is More Openly Transgressed, Or More Industriously Evaded, Than That By Which He Commands His Followers To Forgive Injuries. Samuel

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.

True Poverty Does Not Come From God.

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.

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

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.

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

The United States Stands By Its Friends. Israel Is One Of Its Friends Peace Can Be Based Only On Agreement Between The Parties And Agreement Can Be Achieved Only Through Negotiations Between Them. The United States Will Not Impose The Terms Of Peace. The United States Is Prepared To Supply Military Equipment Necessary To Support The Efforts Of Friendly Governments, Like Israel's, To Defend The Safety Of Their People.

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

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

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.

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.

Education Is Not A Problem. Education Is An Opportunity.

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

They Call Upon Us To Supply American Boys To Do The Job That Asian Boys Should Do.

Four. That's What I Want You To Remember. If You Don't Get Your Idea Across In The First Four Minutes, You Won't Do It. Four Sentences To A Paragraph. Four Letters To A Word. The Most Important Words In The English Language All Have Four Letters. Home. Love. Food. Land. Peace. . .i Know Peace Has Five Letters, But Any Damn Fool Knows It Should Have Four.

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

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

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

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

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.

If We Must Disagree, Let's Disagree Without Being Disagreeable.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

A Man Without A Vote Is Man Without Protection.

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

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

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

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

'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.

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

American Politics

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.

Success Only Feeds The Appetite Of Aggression.

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

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.

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.

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.

A Compassionate Government Keeps Faith With The Trust Of The People And Cherishes The Future Of Their Children. Through Compassion For The Plight Of One Individual, Government Fulfills Its Purpose As The Servant Of All The People.

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

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

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 Land Flourished Because It Was Fed From So Many Sources--because It Was Nourished By So Many Cultures And Traditions And Peoples.

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

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

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.

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.

One Lesson You Better Learn If You Want To Be In Politics Is That You Never Go Out On A Golf Course And Beat The President.

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

We Live In A World That Has Narrowed Into A Neighborhood Before It Has Broadened Into A Brotherhood.

To Conclude That Women Are Unfitted To The Task Of Our Historic Society Seems To Me The Equivalent Of Closing Male Eyes To Female Facts.

...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.

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

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

Liberty Is Not Enough.

A Man Can Take A Little Bourbon Without Getting Drunk, But If You Hold His Mouth Open And Pour In A Quart, He's Going To Get Sick On It.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

For The Primary And Secondary School Years, We Will Aid Public Schools Serving Low-income Families And Assist Students In Both Public And Private Schools.

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.

The Fifth Freedom Is Freedom From Ignorance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Many Places, Classrooms Are Overcrowded And Curricula Are Outdated. Most Of Our Qualified Teachers Are Underpaid, And Many Of Our Paid Teachers Are Unqualified. So We Must Give Every Child A Place To Sit And A Teacher To Learn From. Poverty Must Not Be A Bar To Learning, And Learning Must Offer An Escape From Poverty.

Conservation Is Ethically Sound. It Is Rooted In Our Love Of The Land, Our Respect For The Rights Of Others, Our Devotion To The Rule Of Law.

'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.

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

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.

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.

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."

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

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

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.

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

Effective Law Enforcement And Social Justice Must Be Pursued Together, As The Foundation Of Our Efforts Against Crime.

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.

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.

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Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Claire McCaskill

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