Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks Upon Receiving a Citation from the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.

April 21, 1964

THANK YOU so much. I appreciate the time and trouble that you have taken to come here. Your statement has been a most inspiring one. I don't know that I am worthy of all the things that you said about me, but I have tried my dead level best to be, and I want so much to be. I would like to feel that what you have said is deserved. I want to try to make it so if it isn't.

We are living in a very critical period of history. We are a very small part of the world. We are outnumbered 17 to 1. If we take it by race or by faith, by color, by geography, or by any criteria you want to apply, we are still a very small minority. for that reason we should all take great pride in the basic principles upon which this Government was founded, namely, those that protect every person's constitutional rights, whether they are the smallest minority or the largest majority.

As we meet here today, with two-thirds of the world's masses teeming, most of them under 40 years of age, all of them grasping, seeking, and yearning for the things that we already have, most of them as determined and as dedicated as our revolutionary fathers were when they brought this Nation into existence, we must realize that unless we so plan and so act and so do, the days of our peace and our prosperity may truly be limited.

I would say to you that I want to so much be deserving of what you have said. I want all of us to constantly bear in mind the biblical injunction by the prophet Isaiah, "Come now, let us reason together," and also never get very far away from the Golden Rule where we can look at the other fellow as we would have him look at us, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

You are always welcome in this house. I appreciate the work you have done. All I can say is that with whatever talents, energies, and strengths I have, they will be devoted to making this a better world not just now, but, hopefully, for three, four, and five generations to come.

When I go to bed every night I try to sum up the day's activities, which have usually been long and arduous. I ask myself what did I do that day to help some child yet unborn or to be reflected in some generation yet to come. I try to measure my efforts and direct my work to the fields where we can do the greatest good for the greatest number, not only to just Americans, but human beings wherever they are.

Thank you.

Note: The ceremony was held at 11:45 a.m. in the President's office at the White House. The President spoke following the reading of the citation by Dr. Perry Gresham, president of Bethany College.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Receiving a Citation from the Disciples of Christ Historical Society. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239225

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