SAM RAYBURN

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

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

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

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

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

I like power and I like to use it.

If you want to get along, go along.

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

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

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

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.

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

Don’t ever talk until you know what you’re talking about…

No politician has ever been defeated by a speech he didn’t give.

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

The district that is best represented is the district that is wise enough to select a man of energy, intelligence, and integrity and reelects him year after year.

I just wish that he had just one time run for dog catcher.

In my many years as a Representative in Congress it is my observation that the district that is best represented is the district that is wise enough to select a man of energy, intelligence, and integrity and reelects him year after year. A man of this type and character serves more efficiently and effectively the longer he is returned by his people.

Poverty only tries men's souls. It is loneliness that breaks the heart.

They may be just as intelligent as you say. But I'd feel a helluva lot better if just one of them had ever run for sheriff.

Don't try to go too fast. Learn your job. Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about... If you want to get along, go along.

There's no education in the second kick of a mule

There are no degrees in honorableness. You either are or you aren't.

I will not deny that there are men in the district better qualified than I to go to Congress, but gentlemen, these men are not in the race.

Let the other fellow get the headlines. I'll take the laws.