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.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of considering potential negative outcomes of legislation rather than just its intended benefits.
Lyndon B. Johnson's quote highlights a critical perspective on the evaluation of legislation. It suggests that one should assess laws not only based on their expected advantages when implemented correctly, but more importantly, on the possible damages they could inflict if executed poorly. This approach encourages a more cautious and responsible scrutiny of laws, prioritizing the prevention of harm over the optimism of benefits.
In practice
This quote can be used by lawmakers during debates to emphasize the importance of thorough consideration of potential risks.
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.
If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
I seldom think of politics more than eighteen hours a day.
The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people.
Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.
The advice I've been giving to people all my life - that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can't give up politics, it won't give you up - was the advice I should have been taking myself.
I think it's about time! Who cares whether he is looking for votes or not! At least your country is moving forward with the times!
Behold a republic standing erect while empires all around are bowed beneath the weight of their own armaments - a republic whose flag is loved while other flags are only feared.
Our democracy cannot be left in the hands of those who would rather watch or participate in a train wreck than stop it.
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