Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes

238 Sourced Quotes

Where legitimate opportunities are closed, illegitimate opportunities are seized. Whatever opens opportunity and hope will help to prevent crime and foster responsibility.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
Effective law enforcement and social justice must be pursued together, as the foundation of our efforts against crime.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
It is a truism that education is no longer a luxury. Education in this day and age is a necessity.

Lyndon B. Johnson
The future holds little hope for any government where the present holds no hope for the people.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
This Congress did more to uplift education, more to attack disease in this country and around the world, and more to conquer poverty than any other session in all American history, and what more worthy achievements could any person want to have? For it was the Congress that was more true than any other Congress to Thomas Jefferson's belief that: 'The care of human life and happiness is the first and only legitimate objective of good Government.'

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
I believe that the essence of government lies with unceasing concern for the welfare and dignity and decency and innate integrity of life for every individual. I don't like to say this and wish I didn't have to add these words to make it clear but I will regardless of color, creed, ancestry, sex or age.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
To sustain an environment suitable for man, we must fight on a thousand battlegrounds. Despite all of our wealth and knowledge, we cannot create a redwood forest, a wild river, or a gleaming seashore.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
I am proud to be a member of a party that opens its doors to all men--and closes its hearts to none.

Lyndon B. Johnson
The best fertilizer for a piece of land is the footprints of its owner.

Lyndon B. Johnson
A rioter with a Molotov cocktail in his hands is not fighting for civil rights any more than a Klansman with a sheet on his back and mask on his face. They are both more or less what the law declares them: lawbreakers, destroyers of constitutional rights and liberties and ultimately destroyers of a free America.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
Let no one ever think for a moment that national debate means national division.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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.

Lyndon B. Johnson
I know - from personal experience - that abiding values and abundant visions are learned in the homes of our people.

Lyndon B. Johnson
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?

Lyndon B. Johnson
The economy was never stronger in your lifetime. But statistics must not be sedatives. Economic power is important only as it is put to human use.

Lyndon B. Johnson
As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?

Lyndon B. Johnson