25 Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes About Government, Civil Rights and More

Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States of America.

I can’t believe that we will swear in the 46th President of the United States in just a few short weeks.

We can learn many things from these Lyndon B. Johnson quotes as we usher in a fresh round of elected officials.

Johnson spoke about freedom, politics, education, and poverty, which are still hot-button issues today.

He was born in Stonewall, Texas, and was the eldest of five siblings.

He was elected as the class president when he was in 11th grade.

Johnson graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College and served in the US House of Representatives from 1937 to 1949.

He was also a veteran of the United States Army.

He moved on to the Senate from 1949 to 1961.

Johnson became John F. Kennedy’s vice president in 1961.

He was most known for the ‘Johnson Treatment,’ the term coined to explain his aggressive approach.

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Lyndon B. Johnson quotes about education, opportunity, and equality

1. “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.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

2. “Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

3. “We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

4. “Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty.”— Lyndon B. Johnson

5. “We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter – and to write it in the books of law.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

6. “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

7. “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.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

8. “The fifth freedom is freedom from ignorance.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

9. “If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

10. “The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn’t let them into the family brokerage business.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

11. “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.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

12. “To conclude that women are unfitted to the task of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

13. “When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn’t know it had a name.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

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Wise Lyndon B. Johnson quotes

14. Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

15. “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles, and it must be taken one step at a time.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

16. “You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

17. “There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

18. “I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

19. “I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

20. “While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

21. “Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

22. “If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

23. “The noblest search is the search for excellence.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

Inspirational Lyndon B. Johnson quotes about God, Peace, and War

24. “I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help – and God’s.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

25. “The guns and the bombs, the rockets, and the warships are all symbols of human failure.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

What did you learn from these Lyndon B. Johnson quotes?

The lack of authority and purpose within the vice president’s office was frustrating to Johnson, and he sought to make some changes.

He was met with opposition, and people were not happy with his mannerisms and connections.

Kennedy wanted to keep him busy, so he wouldn’t complain to the reporters he knew.

Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president on Air Force One on November 22, 1963.

He won the 1964 election with Hubert Humphrey as his running mate.

If you wonder what Lyndon B. Johnson accomplished during his presidency, it might surprise you to know that he did a lot.

He passed a substantial tax cut, the Clean Air Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

His administration was also responsible for creating Medicare and Medicaid, thanks to the Social Security Amendments of 1965.

He might not have been the most friendly president, but he was not the worst one.

Leave any other Lyndon B. Johnson quotes and sayings that didn’t make the list in the comment section below.