“A handshake, as delivered by Lyndon Johnson, could be as effective as a hug.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“if one characteristic of Lyndon Johnson was a boundless ambition, another was a willingness, on behalf of that ambition, to make efforts that were also without bounds.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“Until the end of his life, whenever the subject of the vast growth of the LBJ Company and associated business enterprises was raised, Lyndon Johnson would emphasize that he owned none of it (“All that is owned by Mrs. Johnson.… I don’t have any interest in government-regulated industries of any kind and never have had”).”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“He (LBJ) played on their fears as he played on their hopes.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“(Until the end of their lives, these men and women would tell stories about the summer they followed Lyndon Johnson and his Flying Windmill around Texas; as Oliver Knight of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram would write about one trip, “That mad dash from Navasota to Conroe in which I dodged stumps at 70 MPH just to keep up with that contraption will ever be green in my memory.”) At the landing site, there would be the brief respite”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“A laconic Texas lawmaker declined to use his considerable influence to intervene in a loud dispute between his colleagues. When asked why not, he said, "They're not voting. If they're not voting, they're not passing any laws. If they're not passing any laws, they're not hurting anybody.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“I never conceived of my biographies as merely telling the lives of famous men but rather as a means of illuminating their times and the great forces that shaped their times—particularly political power, since in a democracy political power has so great a role in shaping the lives of the citizens of that democracy.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“With a note of sadness, Wicker wrote in 1983 that “the reverence, the childlike dependence, the willingness to follow where the President leads, the trust, are long gone—gone, surely, with Watergate, but gone before that.… After Lyndon Johnson, after the ugly war that consumed him, trust in ‘the President’ was tarnished forever.” That tarnishing revolutionized politics and government in the United States. The shredding of the delicate yet crucial fabric of credence and faith between the people of the United States and the man they had placed in the White House occurred during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“Lyndon Johnson knew how to make the most of such enthusiasm and how to play on it and intensify it. He wanted his audience to become involved. He wanted their hands up in the air. And having been a schoolteacher he knew how to get their hands up. He began, in his speeches, to ask questions.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“Speaking out as he had never before done in Congress, Lyndon Johnson in 1947 opposed most of Truman’s “Fair Deal.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“From the earliest beginnings of Lyndon Johnson’s political life—from his days at college when he had captured control of campus politics—his tactics had consistently revealed a pragmatism and a cynicism that had no discernible limits.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
“dignity was a luxury in a fight with Lyndon Johnson, a luxury too expensive to afford.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent
Robert A. Caro
Born place: in New York, The United States
Born date October 30, 1935
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“The next day, Greg is so large that he cannot even ride the car to school because he can't fit in the car. His parents believe this to have been caused by a food allergy and resolve to take him to the doctor later.”
― R.L. Stine, quote from Say Cheese and Die!
“One had only to look at the map to see that Panama was the proper place for the canal. The route was already well established, there was a railroad, there were thriving cities at each end. Only at Panama could a sea-level canal be built. It was really no great issue at all. Naturally there were problems. There were always problems. There had been large, formidable problems at Suez, and to many respected authorities they too had seemed insurmountable. But as time passed, as the work moved ahead at Suez, indeed as difficulties increased, men of genius had come forth to meet and conquer those difficulties. The same would happen again. For every challenge there would be a man of genius capable of meeting and conquering it. One must trust to inspiration. As for the money, there was money aplenty in France just waiting for the opening of the subscription books.”
― David McCullough, quote from The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
“He has captured my heart wholly and stolen my soul for eternity.”
― Nicole Reed, quote from Ruining You
“And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes. And so it goes goes goes goes goes tick tock tick tock tick tock and one day we no longer let time serve us, we serve time and we are slaves of the schedule, worshipers of the sun's passing, bound into a life predicated on restrictions because the system will not function if we don't keep the schedule tight.”
― Harlan Ellison, quote from "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
“If you write movies, you never know who the enemy is. Someone is going to fuck you, that’s a given.”
― William Goldman, quote from Marathon Man
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