If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
Interpretation
Government exists to assist individuals in achieving what they cannot achieve alone.
Lyndon B. Johnson's quote emphasizes the fundamental role of government as a facilitator and supporter of the public. It suggests that one of the primary functions of government should be to provide aid and create opportunities for its citizens, especially in areas where individual capabilities are insufficient, such as social welfare and public services.
In practice
This quote can be used in a public speech about social reforms.
You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
We do this in order to slow down aggression. We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely born this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. And we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam-and all who seek to share their conquest-of a simple fact: We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.
So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but along train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us which are only excusable in the prime of life.
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.
You turn if you want to. The Lady's not for turning.
MAKE STATEMENTS also applies to us women: Speak in statements instead of apologetic questions. No one wants to go to a doctor who says, βIβm going to be your surgeon? Iβm here to talk to you about your procedure? I was first in my class at Johns Hopkins, so?β Make statements, with your actions and your voice.
President Obama has made it his mission that we welcome our troops home with care, and concern, and the respect they deserve. That is how an exceptional nation says "thank you" to its most exceptional men and women.
Because management deals mostly with the status quo and leadership deals mostly with change, in the next century we are going to have to try to become much more skilled at creating leaders.
It's only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead.
Those who purify your water, inspect your meat, and test your kids toys, as well as a huge number of nurses, teachers, and our soldiers, are public employees. The firefighters who don't hesitate to rush toward danger while you run away from it - they are all public employees.
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