Lyndon B. Johnson

Every child must be encouraged to get as much education as he has the ability to take. We want this not only for his sake — but for the future of our nation’s sake. Nothing matters more to the future of our country: not our military preparedness — for armed might is worthless if we lack the brainpower to build world peace; not our productive economy — for we cannot sustain growth without trained manpower; not our democratic system of government – for freedom is fragile if citizens are ignorant.

Most of all we need an education system which will create an educated mind. This is a mind not simply a repository of information and skills, but a mind that is a source of creative skepticism, characterized by a willingness to challenge old assumptions and to be challenged, a spaciousness of outlook, and convictions that are deeply held, but which new facts and new experiences can always modify. It means an educational system which does not simply equip the students to adjust to society, but which enables the student to challenge and to modify, and at times reject, if necessary, the received wisdom of his elders.

Poverty has many roots, but the taproot is ignorance.

We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment.

We are now embarked on another venture to put the American dream to work in meeting the new demands of a new day. Once again we must start where men would improve their society have always known they must begin – with an educational system restudied, reinforced, and revitalized.

Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it. And if we cannot educate today’s youth, what will we do in 1970 when elementary enrollment will be 5 million greater than 1960? And high school enrollment will rise by 5 million. College enrollment will increase by more than 3 million.

In our culture and in culture sometimes they make you feel a little be weird for being smart… but we are intelligent people and our dreams matter regardless of if you speak with an accent and people think that that makes you not intelligent.

There is no education like adversity.

The Supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things – the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.

School reports were always pretty bad. I never ever did my homework. I always turned up for lessons as I liked my teachers but my report said I didn’t try very hard.

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Our requirements for world leadership, our hopes for economic growth, and the demands of citizenship itself in an era such as this all require the maximum development of every young American’s capacity. The human mind is our fundamental resource.

There was no word dyslexia when I was a kid. You were just dumb.

Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.

The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.

To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.

The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return.

Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it. And if we cannot educate today’s youth, what will we do in 1970 when elementary enrollment will be 5 million greater than 1960? And high school enrollment will rise by 5 million. College enrollment will increase by more than 3 million.

Any man can learn anything he will, but no man can teach except to those who want to learn. Education is preeminently a matter of quality, not amount.

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.