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.

Tags: Lyndon B. Johnson

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. (To Prime Minister Harold Wilson)

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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.

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If you let a bully come in your front yard, he’ll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he’ll rape your wife in your own bed. (On appeasement)

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I don’t believe I’ll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn’t go to Harvard.

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The Negro says, ‘Now.’ Others say, ‘Never.’ The voice of responsible Americans … says, ‘Together.’ There is no other way.

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Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

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I greet you as the shapers of American society.

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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.

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All that Hubert needs over there is a gal to answer the phone and a pencil with an eraser on it.

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I seldom think of politics more than 18 hours a day.

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I believe the destiny of your generation-and your nation-is a rendezvous with excellence.

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Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

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Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath.

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We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society. … We have truly entered the century of the educated man.

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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.

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Jack was out kissing babies while I was out passing bills. Someone had to tend the store.

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Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against society.

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The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.

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