Sam Rayburn's Quotes

You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.

If you want to get along, go along.

A damn independent boy; independent as a hog on ice.

A jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.

When you get too big a majority, you're immediately in trouble.'

Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.

If a man has common sense, he has all the sense there is.

You'll never get mixed up if you simply tell the truth. Then you don't have to remember what you have said, and you never forget what you have said.

Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.

I like power and I like to use it.

No one has a finer command of language than the person who keeps his mouth shut.

Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time.

The real actor has a direct line to the collective heart.

Too many critics mistake the deliberations of the Congress for its decisions.