Book detail: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966 is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
The book serves as a comprehensive archive of the official documents and remarks made by President Lyndon B. Johnson during his tenure, providing insight into his administration's policies and priorities.
The quotes below use the same card format as the rest of the site, including topics, source notes, copy actions, image creation, and sharing controls.
Read more
“The exercise of power in this century has meant for all of us in the United States not arrogance, but agony.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn't know it had a name.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Let no one ever think for a moment that national debate means national division.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Success only feeds the appetite of aggression.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Education is the key to opportunity in our society, and the equality of educational opportunity must be the birthright of every citizen.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“...where legitimate opportunities are closed, illegitimate opportunities are seized. Whatever opens opportunity and hope will help to prevent crime and foster responsibility.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Men who have worked together to reach the stars are not likely to descend together into the depths of war and desolation.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“In a nation of millions and a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Free speech, free press, free religion, the right of free assembly, yes, the right of petition... well, they are still radical ideas.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth, our finest young men, into battle.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Peace does not come just because we wish for it. Peace must be fought for. It must be built stone by stone.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Law is the great civilizing machinery. It liberates the desire to build and subdues the desire to destroy.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“When the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale, the community itself is crippled.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“Effective law enforcement and social justice must be pursued together, as the foundation of our efforts against crime.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“We did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“The land flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966
“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.”
Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966