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Quote by Lady Bird Johnson

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Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson

Lady Bird Johnson, born on December 22, 1912, and passed away on July 11, 2007, served as the First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson. She is remembered for her passionate advocacy for the beautification of American cities and highways, as well as her contributions to education and environmental conservation. Lady Bird Johnson's dedication to enhancing the quality of life in America has had a lasting impact on the nation's landscape and cultural identity. more

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“But from the height where we were I could see, on the other side of the ravine that hid the stream, a whole part of the forest quivering as though shaken by a cruel fear, and the tops of the trees suddenly tilting, and falling like feathers; and then I saw them, packed closely against one another, the great gray shapes I knew so well. I thought: Soon there will be no more room in the modem world for such need of space, for such royal clumsiness, such magnificent freedom. And I could not help smiling, as I did each time I saw them, with relief, as though the sight of them reassured me about an essential presence. In this age of impotence, this age of taboos, of slavery, inhibitions, and almost physiological submission, when man is triumphing over his most ancient truths and renouncing his deepest needs, it always seemed to me, as I listened to the earth’s most ancient thunder, that we had not yet been finally cut off from our sources, that we had not yet lost ourselves forever, that we had not yet been once for all castrated and enslaved, that we were not yet altogether subdued.”

“We’re old men now, it’s obvious. Most of us are gone and few remain. That's justice anyway: You ate, you lived, you saw good and evil, you suffered what you had to suffer, and you had your children. Then, all at once and before you know it, you're sent on your way. As for you lot though, this is what I'm trying to say: It's better to be ignorant and useful than learned and useless.”

“Here is a perfectly grotesque example of such compromise. US senator Alan Cranston reportedly said, after a visit to Turkmenistan, sounding like Türkmenbaşy himself, ‘Of course, you don’t build a democratic state in a day. In America, we’ve been at it 200 years, and even here it isn’t perfect. In my opinion, Turkmenistan is slowly but surely walking a path toward a democratic society and economic transition’.”