You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.
I don't have any handicap. I am all handicap.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of overcoming personal limitations and embracing one's challenges as part of one's identity.
In this quote, Lyndon B. Johnson expresses a profound sense of resilience and self-acceptance. By stating that he is 'all handicap,' he acknowledges that every individual has their own struggles and difficulties, and rather than viewing them as limitations, he sees them as intrinsic aspects of his identity. This perspective encourages others to confront their own challenges with courage and to understand that true strength lies in embracing one's vulnerabilities.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech addressing students with disabilities, this quote can inspire them to embrace their uniqueness.
More from Lyndon B. Johnson
All quotes βPeace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
We do this in order to slow down aggression. We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely born this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. And we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam-and all who seek to share their conquest-of a simple fact: We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.
So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but along train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us which are only excusable in the prime of life.
You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.
If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.
Similar quotes
When you hear anyone policing the bodies of trans women, misgendering and othering us, and violently exiling us from spaces, you should not dismiss it as a trans issue that trans women should speak out against. You should be engaged in the dialogue, discourse, and activism that challenges the very fibers of your movement.
A man is at his strongest when he is willing to accept his vulnerability
As long as you have the courage to admit mistakes, things can be turned around.
The first steps in self-acceptance are not at all pleasant, for what one sees is not a happy sight. One needs all the courage to go further.
Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.
Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump. I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I didn't go to sick bay. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it--an old remedy. Then I'd get up the next morning and run.