I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for, and President Kennedy died for.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a commitment to continue the vision of past leaders for a better nation.
Lyndon B. Johnson's quote reflects his dedication to creating a nation that embodies the ideals and aspirations of past presidents, namely Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and John F. Kennedy. It underscores the importance of leadership and the pursuit of progress in society, suggesting that he is driven by their legacies to work towards a nation that promotes equality, prosperity, and justice for all.
In practice
Referring to this quote during a political rally to inspire voters.
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.
If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations.
We're not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we're not willing to give them first chances.
American political scions evoke a central contradiction in our thinking. We believe - or say we do - in nurture, not nature. Yet we are comforted by the aristocratic notion that leadership might run in the bloodlines.
I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
We must have faith in the people of this country and faith in our principles.
Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.
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