The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
The Hill Country was a land that broke romantics, dreamers, wishful thinkers, idealists. It broke Sam Johnson.
Robert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
But trying didn’t count in the Hill Country, just as hoping didn’t count, just as wishful thinking didn’t count, just as a belief that you should hold on to the family place and a willingness to fight for that place didn’t count. What counted in the Hill Country was the reality of the soil. “He had seen his daddy make good on the land, at least
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He battled that farm on the Pedernales, trying to make its soil pay out the dreams he had planted in it. But it couldn’t.
Robert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
In Austin—in the Legislature—idealism was irrelevant; in the Hill Country, it was fatal.
Robert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
“You can tell a man by his boots and his hat and the horse he rides,”
Robert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
earthy as Rebekah was ethereal. Many
Robert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
A prudent, practical gambler keeps a reserve to tide him over the inevitable runs of bad luck. The Johnsons were not prudent and practical.
Robert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
Eternal vigilance, eternal hardness, was the price of success.… A