Science, knowledge, logic and brilliance might be useful tools but they didn’t build highways or civil service systems. Power built highways and civi… - Robert A. Caro

Then Lyndon Johnson came to Jim Rowe’s office again, to plead with him, crying real tears as he sat doubled over, his face in his hands. “He wept. ‘I’m going to die. You’re an old friend. I thought you were my friend and you don’t care that I’m going to die. It’s just selfish of you, typically selfish.’ ” Finally Rowe said, “ ‘Oh, goddamn it, all right’ ” — and then “as soon as Lyndon got what he wanted,” Rowe was forcibly reminded why he had been determined not to join his staff. The moment the words were out of Rowe’s mouth, Johnson straightened up, and his tone changed instantly from one of pleading to one of cold command. “Just remember,” he said. “I make the decisions. You don’t.

We want to make the farmer and his wife and family believe and know that they are no longer the forgotten people, but make them know that they are remembered as part of — yea, they are the bulwark of the Government.

determining the essence of different points of view (what Lyndon Johnson called “listening”),