Robert A. Caro Quotes
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.
4915 The author describes Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn as "seldom at ease without a gavel in his hand.
1408 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.
4224 President Kennedy’s eloquence was designed to make men think; President Johnson’s hammer blows are designed to make men act.
2025 Ask not what you have done for Lyndon Johnson, but what you have done for him lately.
2867 He (LBJ) played on their fears as he played on their hopes.
4153 The breath of life of the Senate is, of course, continuity,
3754 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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