Top 280 Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

202. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

203. “Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

204. “All of us realize that war requires action. What is sometimes harder for us to realize is that peace and neutrality also require action.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

205. “It’s the price of leadership to do the thing you believe has to be done at the time it must be done.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

206. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

207. “We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

208. “Never make a speech at a country dance or a football game.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

209. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

210. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

211. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

212. “There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

213. “Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

214. “John ain’t been worth a damn since he started wearing $300 suits.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

215. “In a thousand unseen ways we have drawn shape and strength from the land.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

216. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

217. “Every man of any education would rather be called a rascal, than accused of deficiency in the graces.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

218. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

219. “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

220. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

221. “I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

222. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

223. “I may not worry as much as Prime Minister Eshkol does about Israel, but I worry as deeply.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

224. “We still seek no wider war.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

225. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

226. “Curtis Le May wants to bomb Hanoi and Haiphong. You know how he likes to go around bombing.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

227. “I don’t have any handicap. I am all handicap.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

228. “And Americans have always stood ready to pay the cost in energy and treasure which are needed to make those goals a reality.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

229. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

230. “We cannot have government for all the people until we first make certain it is government of and by all the people.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

231. “In our home there was always prayer – aloud, proud and unapologetic.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

232. “This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. 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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

233. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

234. “Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

235. “I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

236. “Today – wealthier, more powerful and more able than ever before in our history – our Nation can declare another essential freedom.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

237. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

238. “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

239. “This is not Johnson’s war. This is America’s war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

240. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

241. “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

242. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

243. “There can no longer be anyone too poor to vote.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

244. “We must open the doors of opportunity.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

245. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

246. “Of course, I may go into a strange bedroom every now and then that I don’t want you to write about, but otherwise you can write everything.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

247. “I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

248. “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.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

249. “The American people have a right to air that they and their children can breathe without fear.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

250. “I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson