Sam Rayburn Quotes

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

The House [of Representatives] is composed of sober, solid, old-charter folks.... There are few shining geniuses; there are many who have experience, the virtues of the heart, and the habits of business. It will be quite a republican assembly.

There never was a time when the services of those who possess talents, integrity, firmness, and sound judgment, were more wanted in Congress.

In 2015, Arvind Kejriwal was not tested. But in 2020, he has been tested and he has failed.

I think JR would make a better President than the one we have now.

While loyalists and defectors overall said John Smith did a better job of standing up for Labour's values, they put Blair ahead on representing the whole country, appealing beyond traditional Labour voters and offering strong, competent leadership; switchers to the Tories gave him a clear lead in all categories.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

Gore will not win a popularity contest, he will not win a personality contest, but he can win an idealogical battle, and he can win a battle of experience.

Here's what I've found in Louisiana: The voters want to know what you believe, what you stand for, and what you plan to do, not what shade your skin is.

If a large city can, after intense intellectual efforts, choose for its mayor a man who merely will not steal from it, we consider it a triumph of the suffrage.

In my lifetime, Mitt Romney is the most qualified leader I've ever seen run for the presidency of the United States.

I must, in candor, say I do not think myself fit for the Presidency.

If a member of Congress doesn’t pay attention to process of reapportionment as the result of the census, he ends up being called “former Congressman.”

A man who aspires to any high office should have three qualifications: first, he should be prepared to support the constitution of his country; second, he should have a special aptitude for the office he desires; and third, he should have virtue and justice as they are understood by his fellow citizens.

Character is the single most important thing the voter considers when voting for the presidency.

Every member of Congress is shaped by his or her first election.

Our people are slow to learn the wisdom of sending character instead of talent to Congress. Again and again they have sent a man of great acuteness, a fine scholar, a fine forensic orator, and some master of the brawls has crunched him up in his hands like a bit of paper.

Party leaders must have not only the confidence of the party, but the confidence of the people.

Is he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?

John isn't qualified to be vice president. He doesn't have the intellect. He doesn't have the stature. He doesn't have the honesty. He doesn't have the character that it takes.

Most people who serve in Congress just want to do the right thing.

If the American people are going to choose you to be their President, they’re entitled to know an awful lot about you.

The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union.

The Constitution reflects in the most degrading and mortifying manner on the virtue, integrity, and wisdom of the state legislatures; it presupposes that the chosen few who go to Congress will have more upright hearts, and more enlightened minds, than those who are members of individual [state] legislatures.

Unfortunately we are politicians when we should be statesmen.