Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes

Every day that I’m in office and every day I push my program, I’ll be losing part of my ability to be influential because that’s in the nature of what the President does. He uses up capital…. I want you guys to get off your asses and do everything possible to get everything in my program passed as soon as possible before the aura and the halo that surrounds me disappear.

A president in his first year has a mandate and some political capital. When he picks an issue, he can practically roll any Congress.

The social power of the Presidency is one of the most powerful tools a President can use.

Presidents are evaluated not by what they did by the stroke of their own pen; it's what they persuade Congress to do.

I think that presidents don't give up power that has accrued to them by the precedent of previous presidents. Even when they say they would like to, I think once they get there they don't give it up.

When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.

Getting members of Congress to do things they don’t want to do is a crucial part of being President.

Congressional power has not so much been usurped by the Presidency as given up to the Presidency by Congress.

A man who understands the power of the Presidency, who understands the potential of the Presidency, can get almost anything accomplished.

The word of the president is a national asset not to be trifled with.

Presidents have molded and been molded by all that happens here [Washington DC].

The President sets the policies and Congress does not. Our lawmakers in Washington ratify and implement what the President wants, but if he is a strong leader and can hold his own party together, even with the majority of the opposition against him he usually can win over enough members of Congress to carry what legislation he really feels is essential.

We are all the President's men.

At the start of first terms, presidents invariably have a measure of goodwill.

The President wants to avoid being a lame duck. He’s trying not to limp and quack at the same time.

The respective powers of the President and Congress of the United States, in the case of war with foreign powers are yet undetermined. Perhaps they can never be defined.

His Presidency gave his post-Presidency credibility.

Never underestimate the power of an American President in his early days.

Congress ... is far more than the simple, limited advisory council that most Presidents would like to maintain.

When it comes to the media, the Congress is no match for the President.

Any President has authority who asserts authority.

What a President says and thinks is not worth five cents unless he has the people and Congress behind him. Without the Congress I'm just a six-feet-four Texan. With the Congress I'm President of the United States in the fullest sense.

… with the stroke of a pen.

Ultimately the Presidency is about the President.

The President … does not originate laws or resolutions; he takes no part in the deliberations on them during their progress; he does not act in relation to them indirectly by advice or interference of any sort, until they have passed both houses: it is only when their operations are concluded that his power begins.