I will not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
Interpretation
The speaker is choosing to withdraw from political candidacy, emphasizing a principled decision in leadership.
In this quote, Lyndon B. Johnson expresses his decision to decline the nomination for another term as president. This statement reflects a profound sense of responsibility and humility, indicating that he prioritizes the needs of the nation and the political climate over personal ambition, demonstrating what true leadership should represent.
In practice
During a political discussion about selfless leadership.
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.
Peace 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.
Great men are rarely isolated mountain-peaks; they are the summits of ranges.
Presidents grow up in the White House. The times shape the man.
Talk to people in their own language. If you do it well, they'll say, 'God, he said exactly what I was thinking.' And when they begin to respect you, they'll follow you to the death.
Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.
You need collaboration of its people; it's the only way to improve a company - can you ignore that? You need a win-win for every sub-group, which will ensure exponential growth for a company.
The easiest and quickest path into the esteem of traditional military authorities is by the appeal to the eye, rather than to the mind. The `polish and pipeclay' school is not yet extinct, and it is easier for the mediocre intelligence to become an authority on buttons, than on tactics.
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