Sam Rayburn Quotes

When you talk, you only talk about something that you already know. But when you listen, you can learn something you don’t know.

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.

The older I get, the more I have to think long and hard about what I need to say and why.

Be slow to speak, and only after having first listened quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those who do speak. Thus you will better know when to speak and when to be silent.

We still need a voice that thinks before it speaks.

You've got to guard against speaking more clearly than you think.

The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

I always try to think before I talk.

I regret things all the time. I've never regretted not saying something. I've only regretted saying something.

You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk.

Words must be weighed, not counted.

Speak not of what you have read, but about what you have understood.

The biggest piece of advice I have is - listen. Don't jump to the answer or what you think the answer is. The more you listen, the more you learn.

Wisdom comes out of dialogue so you have to develop the capacity to expose your own ignorance in order that they may discover their own wisdom.

The people I go after are the false experts, those who do not accept the limits of their knowledge.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

That is a good question for you to ask, not a wise question for me to answer.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

When I do interviews, I enter them with an open mind and try to answer the questions the best I can.

The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false; the second, to know that which is true.