Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes

I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please.'

Be polite to a congressman—he may be elected president.

The traditions and courtesies of the Senators and Representatives stand in the way of the Executive, however, as defined by the Constitution, and no man who is trained in the congressional school fails to suffer by them in a way that men of merely executive experience know nothing of.

I think we need to communicate more effectively how we treat you with respect and dignity as a customer.

I like to respect my customers.

Return telephone calls promptly but be judicious about the time spent on the phone.

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.

We saw what happened in Jimmy Carter's administration. President Carter was a good man with the best of intentions. But he came to Washington without a good working relationship with Democratic members of Congress, which played a big part in his administration's problems.

If you're not a nice person, don't call.

Be as polite to the custodian as you are to the chairman of the board.

We must advertise to U.S. business that we are there, that our attitude has changed, and that we care. When we are asked to help, we have to perform and provide the right advice.

I hate it when people are impolite to waiters or to the valet or the guy in the supermarket. There's no need for that; it doesn't cost anything to be polite.

When telemarketers call me now, I won't get the blow-horn. I'm more polite than the average person.

Civility is perhaps a quaint notion but civility in Parliament is something we should always strive to uphold.

Give members of Congress a sense of equity in your administration.

If you ever keep [Vice President] Hubert [Humphrey] waiting again, I'll kick your ass down that hall.

Well. I'm here, and I damn near got killed getting here by airplane in time to vote, as I did on another occasion. I don't think the bill amounts to a tinker's damn, and I expect to be kicked in the ass just as I have in the past in return for my services. I don't want a Goddamned thing. My vote is not for sale. I vote my convictions, just as I always have, but I think the President ought to have the decency to treat me like the Senator from Missouri and not like a goddamned office boy, and you can tell him what I said. If he wants me to. I'll come down and tell him myself.

The etiquette question has become of so much importance as to be an object of state.

I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.

Surely we don’t want the President to lie, we don’t want our senators to lie, we don’t want our congressmen to lie. But sometimes they do.

As human nature is very much the same in Congress as in a stock exchange, a church convention, or a newspaper office, the President who deals with Congress tactfully and courteously will, in the long run get more of what he wants than the President who does not do so. He may not get so much credit for what he does gain, from those people who like to see a President fight Congress, especially in that flattering way which consists in appealing to them to make Congress do what the President wants done.

Each of the participants [in a Presidential Debate] has a major objective and a minor one, in addition, of course, to appearing presidential. The major one is to get his messages across even if the questions don’t ask for them. The minor one is to avoid seeming unresponsive. That is why you will see the debaters answer some of the questions quickly, leaving time for what the candidate wants to talk about.

As far as investors and customers are concerned, I make it a point to answer each and every piece of mail that comes to me.

Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow, immediately.

I respond to every email. I sign every autograph for every person.