Great Throughts Treasury

"At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed. ... There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have the right to vote...Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes... No law that we now have on the books...can insure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it... There is no Constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong?deadly wrong?to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.There is no issue of States' rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights."

"Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it."

"Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in."

"But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome."

"Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad."

"By the oath I have taken "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," duty directs--and strong personal conviction impels--that I advise the Congress that action is necessary, and necessary now, if the Constitution is to be upheld and the rights of all citizens are not to be mocked, abused and denied. I must regretfully report to the Congress the following facts: <be/> 1. That the Fifteenth Amendment of our Constitution is today being systematically and willfully circumvented in certain State and local jurisdictions of our Nation. 2. That representatives of such State and local governments acting "under the color of law," are denying American citizens the right to vote on the sole basis of race or color. 3. That, as a result of these practices, in some areas of our country today no significant number of American citizens of the Negro race can be registered to vote except upon the intervention and order of a Federal Court. 4. That the remedies available under law to citizens thus denied their Constitutional rights--and the authority presently available to the Federal Government to act in their behalf--are clearly inadequate. 5. That the denial of these rights and the frustration of efforts to obtain meaningful relief from such denial without undue delay is contributing to the creation of conditions which are both inimical to our domestic order and tranquillity and incompatible with the standards of equal justice and individual dignity on which our society stands."

"Democrats legislate; Republicans investigate."

"Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else."

"Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them."

"Education is the key to opportunity in our society, and the equality of educational opportunity must be the birthright of every citizen. No other challenge concerns me more than this one. None is of greater importance to the American people."

"Education will not cure all the problems of society, but without it no cure for any problem is possible."

"Emancipation was a proclamation, but not a fact."

"Europe has been at peace since 1945. But it is a restless peace that?s shadowed by the threat of violence. Europe is partitioned. An unnatural line runs through the heart of a very great and a very proud nation Germany. History warns us that until this harsh division has been resolved, peace in Europe will never be secure. We must turn to one of the great unfinished tasks of our generation and that unfinished task is making Europe whole again."

"Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right."

"Every child must be encouraged to get as much education as he has the ability to take. We want this not only for his sake -- but for the nation's sake. Nothing matters more to the future of our country: not our military preparedness -- for armed might is worthless if we lack the brainpower to build a world of peace; not our productive economy -- for we cannot sustain growth without trained manpower; not our democratic system of government -- for freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant."

"Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath."

"Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private. I have urged Congress except when the Nations security is at stake to take action to that end."

"Every night before I turn out the lights to sleep, I ask myself this question: Have I done everything that I can.... Have I done enough?"

"Every President wants to do right."

"First, this law - the National Defense Education Act - ended years and years of debate about one controversial question: 'Shall the Federal Government, with all its massive resources, get directly involved in aiding American education?' The answer this law gave was a loud 'Yes!' - and thus we paved the way for a new era of support for education in America. This law, in fact, helped make possible more than 50 new education laws passed in my administration. Second, this law has become a special symbol of our Nation's most important purpose: to fulfill the individual - his freedom, his happiness, his promise."

"For at the real heart of battle for equality is a deep-seated belief in the democratic process. Equality depends not on the force of arms or tear gas but upon the force of moral right; not on recourse to violence but on respect for law and order."

"For it is not enough just to give men rights. They must be able to use those rights in their personal pursuit of happiness."

"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."

"For Negroes are not the only victims. How many white children have gone uneducated, how many white families have lived in stark poverty, how many white lives have been scarred by fear, because we have wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror? So I say to all of you here, and to all in the Nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future. This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all: black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are the enemies and not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too, poverty, disease and ignorance, we shall over, come."

"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."

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground."

"Freedom is not enough."

"Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good ...We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long..."

"Greater love hath no man than to attend the Episcopal Church with his wife."

"Heck by the time a man scratches his behind, clears his throat, and tells me how smart he is, we've already wasted fifteen minutes."

"History may well record that we served liberty and saved freedom when we undertook a crash program in the field of education? I hope this bill is only the forerunner of better things to come."

"'Human history, ' H.G. Wells once wrote, 'becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.' You and I cannot be indifferent to the outcome of that race. We care deeply about the winner. Because we do care so deeply about the winner, that is why we are all in the East Room of the White House today. I don't think that I need to tell you how important to the outcome of that race is the education legislation that is now before the Congress. I hope that it is important enough that most of you have studied it in detail. I hope that you understand that it represents the very best thinking that the leading educators of this country can produce. Way back last summer I asked some of the most outstanding educational minds in this Nation to tackle this problem. I gave them a single instruction: find out how we can best invest each education dollar so that it will do the most good. Your support and the support of every leading education group proves that they did their job better than I had hoped, because for the first time we have succeeded in finding goals which unite us rather than divide us."

"I am a free man, an American, a United States Senator, and a Democrat, in that order. I am also a liberal, a conservative, a Texan, a taxpayer, a rancher, a businessman, a consumer, a parent, a voter, and not as young as I used to be nor as old as I expect to be?and I am all of these things in no fixed order."

"I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world."

"I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for, and President Kennedy died for."

"I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display."

"I am so proud of our system of government, of our free enterprise, where our incentive system and our men who head our big industries are willing to get up at daylight and work until midnight to offer employment and create new jobs for people, where our men working there will try to get decent wages but will sit across the table and not act like cannibals, but will negotiate and reason things out together."

"I am, therefore, calling upon the Congress to discharge the duty authorized in Section 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment "to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation.""

"I believe that the essence of government lies with unceasing concern for the welfare and dignity and decency and innate integrity of life for every individual. I don?t like to say this and wish I didn?t have to add these words to make it clear but I will regardless of color, creed, ancestry, sex or age."

"I believe that we must always be mindful of this one thing, whatever the trials and the tests ahead. The ultimate strength of our country and our cause will lie not in powerful weapons or infinite resources or boundless wealth, but will lie in the unity of our people."

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

"I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam."

"I believe, with abiding conviction, that this people - nurtured by their deep faith, tutored by their hard lessons, moved by their high aspirations - have the will to meet the trials that these times impose."

"I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth, our finest young men, into battle."

"I don?t believe in labels. I want to do the best I can, all the time. I want to be progressive without getting both feet off the ground at the same time. I want to be prudent without having my mind closed to anything that is new or different. I have often said that I was proud that I was a free man first and an American second, and a public servant third and a Democrat fourth, in that order, and I guess as a Democrat, if I had to take place a label on myself, I would want to be a progressive who is prudent."

"I don?t want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy?s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket."

"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."

"I feel like I just grabbed a big juicy worm with a right sharp hook in the middle of it."

"I greet you as the shapers of American society."

"I have always believed that freedom of information is so vital that only the national security, not the desire of public officials or private citizens, should determine when it must be restricted."