H. R. McMaster Quotes

Lyndon Johnson is not a comfortable model for President Obama to imitate. He is an all-but-forgotten president - pilloried for the failed war in Vietnam and criticized for grandiose reforms conservatives denounce as the epitome of federal social engineering that costs too much and does too little.

Lyndon Johnson was a terrible president. He wanted to develop a great society…a great world.

But we look back now, and we realize the Great Society was not a success.

If what I've been told is true - and I believe it is, General David Petraeus, a commander with soldiers deployed in two theaters of war, has had multiple meetings with Dick Cheney, the former vice-president of the United States, to discuss Petraeus's candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency.

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.

How different our national perspective would be had Johnson, rather than Nixon, served from 1969 to 1973.

In my years working in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, I had learned that those who seek the presidency are prepared to stop at almost nothing to get their party’s nomination.

We've got a wild man in the White House [Lyndon Johnson], and we are going to have to treat him as such.

Neil McElroy, the Secretary of Defense, had joined the Episcopalian Church. When a public figure joins the church at the age of fifty plus, it means one thing – he’s planning to run for President of the United States.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is no crusader. He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President.

The unraveling of America's long mid-century domestic consensus, which ran from about 1941 to 1966, had begun earlier, under Lyndon B. Johnson.

I hate bad reviews, so yeah, every now and then I think, 'Boy I hope everybody really likes this and thinks this theme is good.' You can't help but do that. I think we all are, or at least I am, reduced to a schoolboy seeking approval.

I'm just propelled by insecurity; that's what really leads me to want to do better.

I've always had that chip on my shoulder, felt the need to prove myself.

I was a big athlete, but I think a lot of the things I did were because they were my false identity, if you will. They got me acceptance, and they got me that attention that I craved.

I'm not the sort of person who if everyone thinks you're fabulous you thrive on it.

I used to be very scared of silence because I felt it was my responsibility to keep people occupied. That definitely spawns from an insecurity in myself. When people aren't enjoying themselves, when I'm involved, it somehow comes back to it being my fault. But I do want people to have a good time.

Even when I was young, I cared too much about what other people thought, especially girls.

I'm hugely affected by what people think. It could be a million people saying, 'Great.' And then one person writes, 'What the hell is this kid doing?' and starts slagging me off, for some reason, and then I have to join in the blog and sign in under a different name and go,'Why don't you like him?'

I'm from Texas, so I'm an LBJ fan. He passed more civil-rights bills than any other president. He made a mistake in Vietnam, but who didn't?

Let me tell you this: if Marco Rubio - even though he's only been in the Senate for a very short period of time, that man has a huge, huge opportunity in this country, and I think he could be the president.

I walk on eggshells, and I care too much about what people think, and I'm afraid to ask for things.

I met Donald Trump in 2003 on a reality show. Could you ever imagine then that we would end up in the White House together?

I am the kind of person who does want very badly to be liked. I'm a right-miserable little show off.

I was that ginger kid who always wanted people to like him. It's hard, and you've got a big chip on your shoulder for a long time.