I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help—and God's.

—Lyndon B. Johnson

God help trying

About Lyndon B. Johnson

Portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 37th vice president under President John F. Kennedy, assuming the office upon Kennedy's...

More quotations from Lyndon B. Johnson

Freedom is not enough.

—Lyndon B. Johnson

Freedom is not enough.

—Lyndon B. Johnson

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim".

—Lyndon B. Johnson

politics journalism water miracles the press

In the long history of man, countless empires and nations have come and gone. Those which created no lasting works of art are reduced today to short footnotes in history's catalog. Art is a nation's most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a Nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish. We in America have not always been kind to the artists and the scholars who are the creators and the keepers of our vision. Somehow, the scientists always seem to get the penthouse, while the arts and the humanities get the basement.

—Lyndon B. Johnson

history vision art heritage

We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.

—Lyndon B. Johnson

More quotations tagged with “trying”

You can't expect to hit the jackpot if you don't put a few nickels in the machine.

winning effort trying taking a chance

For no reason I can explain, I began to discover how little it mattered where you are or what anyone does to you. I was sure that what I had done to get there [imprisoned for draft resistance] was right, and somehow the longer I was there, the better I felt.… I felt filled with love for everyone: everyone I knew and everyone I didn't know; for plants, fish, animals; even bankers, generals, prison guards, and lying politicians—everything and everyone. Why did I feel so good? Was it God? Or approaching death? Or just the way life is supposed to be if we weren't so busy trying to make it something else?

—David Dellinger

love God good death prison trying resistance

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.

success trouble trying stupidity

Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.

—Samuel McChord Crothers

perfection imperfection failure labor work effort trying

If you don't try at anything, you can't fail. It takes back bone to lead the life you want.

—Richard Yates in Revolutionary Road

life accomplishment risk failure achievement trying

History

16 Dec 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help - and God's.