When I was young, poverty was so common that we didn't know it had a name.

Poverty has many roots, but the tap root is ignorance

Negro poverty is not white poverty, ... Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences - deep, corrosive, obstinate differences, radiating painful roots into the community and into the family and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice and present prejudice. They are anguishing to observe. For the negro they are a constant reminder of oppression.

This administration here and now declares unconditional war on poverty.

I pray we are still a young and courageous nation, that we have not grown so old and so fat and so prosperous that all we can think about is to sit back with our arms around our money bags. If we choose to do that I have no doubt that the smoldering fires will burst into flame and consume us / dollars and all.

A President's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.