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Lyndon Johnson believed the poor deserved a better life than the economy was providing them. He thought private power and greed had to be checked by a vibrant democracy.

Bill Moyers

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Bill Moyers
Age: 90
Born: 1934
Born: June 5
Former White House Press Secretary
Journalist
Hugo
Oklahoma
Billy Don Moyers
Billy Moyers
Private
Democracy
Checked
Economy
Vibrant
Poor
Deserved
Thought
Johnson
Providing
Power
Greed
Better
Believed
Life

More quotes by Bill Moyers

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The Supreme Court consistently favors organized money and the political privileges of the corporate class. We have a Senate that is more responsive to affluent constituents than to middle-class constituents, while the opinions of constituents in the bottom third of income distribution have no apparent effect at all on the Senate's roll call votes.
Bill Moyers
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When the public loses faith in democracy's ability to solve the problems it has created for itself, the game's almost over. And I think we are this close to losing democracy to the mercenary class.
Bill Moyers
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Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.
Bill Moyers
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Sharing is the essence of teaching. It is, I have come to believe, the essence of civilization...Without it, the imagination is but the echo of the self, trapped in a soundproof chamber, reverberating upon itself until it is spent in exhaustion or futility.
Bill Moyers
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Watching the debate this afternoon it was apparent they loved term limits in the House - as Brutus loved Caesar.
Bill Moyers
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Jon Stewart is a remarkable satirist and parodist in the vein of Mark Twain, because Jon Stewart understands what Mark Twain knew, which is that the truth goes down more easily in a democracy when it's marinated in humor.
Bill Moyers
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Journalists who make mistakes get sued for libel historians who make mistakes get to publish a revised edition.
Bill Moyers
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How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?
Bill Moyers
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Charity provides crumbs from the table justice offers a place at the table.
Bill Moyers
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We seem to prefer a comfortable lie to the uncomfortable truth. We punish those who point out reality, and reward those who provide us with the comfort of illusion. Reality is fearsome .. but experience tells us that more fearsome yet is evading it.
Bill Moyers
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A journalist is basically a chronicler, not an interpreter of events. Where else in society do you have the license to eavesdrop on so many different conversations as you have in journalism? Where else can you delve into the life of our times?
Bill Moyers
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I'm angry at what's happening to America and angry with myself that I can't do more. I would be miserable if I couldn't bear witness.
Bill Moyers
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There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle.
Bill Moyers
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In America, one of our two major parties is dominated by extremists dedicated to destroying the social contract, and the other party has been so enfeebled by two decades of collaboration with the donor class it can offer only feeble resistance to the forces that are devastating everyday people.
Bill Moyers
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In fact, so much of life, as you know, is serendipitous. That's why you better be prepared at any time for anything, because it may happen to you.
Bill Moyers
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Charity depends on the vicissitudes of whim and personal wealth justice depends on commitment instead of circumstance. Faith-based charity provides crumbs from the table faith-based justice offers a place at the table.
Bill Moyers
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Standing up to your government can mean standing up for your country.
Bill Moyers
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Scientists investigate that which already is Engineers create that which has never been. Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
Bill Moyers
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Journalism's been a continuing course in adult education for me.
Bill Moyers
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But there is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens (something otherwise known as social justice) and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud. That can be the difference between democracy and plutocracy.
Bill Moyers