Robert A. Caro Quotes

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.

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The author describes Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn as "seldom at ease without a gavel in his hand.

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A newcomer could ascertain the identity of a town's true leaders – which storekeeper was respected, which farmer was listened to other farmers – only through endless hours of subtle probing of reticent men.

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President Kennedy’s eloquence was designed to make men think; President Johnson’s hammer blows are designed to make men act.

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Ask not what you have done for Lyndon Johnson, but what you have done for him lately.

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He (LBJ) played on their fears as he played on their hopes.

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The breath of life of the Senate is, of course, continuity,

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But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ... But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary.

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