Sam Rayburn

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“I like power and I like to use it.”

“If you want to get along, go along.”

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

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

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

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

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

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