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Sam Rayburn Quotes

Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn was an American politician who served as the 43rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Texas's 4th congressional district as a Democrat from 1913 to 1961. He holds the record for the longest tenure as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving for over seventeen years.

Born in Roane County, Tennessee, Rayburn moved with his family to Windom, Texas in 1887. After a period as a school teacher, Rayburn won election to the Texas House of Representatives and graduated from the University of Texas School of Law. He won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1912 and continually won re-election until his death in 1961. Rayburn was a protege of John Nance Garner and a mentor to Lyndon B. Johnson.

Rayburn was elected House Majority Leader in 1937 and was elevated to the position of Speaker of the House after the death of William B. Bankhead. He led the House Democrats from 1940 to 1961, and served as Speaker of the House from 1940 to 1947, 1949 to 1953, and 1955 to 1961. He also served as House Minority Leader from 1947 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1955. Rayburn preferred to work quietly in the background and allowed committee chairmen to retain much of the power in the House. He refused to sign the Southern Manifesto and was influential in the construction of U.S. Route 66. He served as Speaker until his death in 1961, and was succeeded by John W. McCormack.

✵ 6. January 1882 – 16. November 1961
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Sam Rayburn: 10 quotes0 likes

Famous Sam Rayburn Quotes

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

Sam Rayburn

Said during filmed conversation with reporters (c. 1953); reported in "Speak, Mister Speaker" (1978), p. 138.

“Well, Lyndon, you may be right and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I'd feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff once.”

Sam Rayburn

To Lyndon Johnson, regarding Johnson's attendance at his first Cabinet meeting (under Kennedy); reported in David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (1972), Introduction.

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

Sam Rayburn

Reported in The Leadership of Speaker Sam Rayburn, Collected Tributes of His Congressional Colleagues (1961), p. 34; House Doc. 87–247.

“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.”

Sam Rayburn

On the weekly radio broadcast, "Texas Forum of the Air" (November 1, 1942); reported in Congressional Record (November 2, 1942), vol. 88, Appendix, p. A3866.

“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.”

Sam Rayburn

Reported in Neil MacNeil, Forge of Democracy, the House of Representatives (1963), p. 129.

Sam Rayburn Quotes

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

Sam Rayburn

On the weekly radio broadcast, "Texas Forum of the Air" (November 1, 1942); reported in Congressional Record (November 2, 1942), vol. 88, Appendix, p. A3866.

“It has always been my ambition since childhood to live such a life that one day my fellow citizens would call me to membership in this popular branch of the greatest lawmaking body in the world. Out of their confidence and partiality they have done this. It is now my sole purpose here to help enact such wise and just laws that our common country will by virtue of these laws be a happier and a more prosperous country. I have always dreamed of a country which I believe this should be and will be, and that is one in which the citizenship is an educated and patriotic people, not swayed by passion and prejudice, and a country that shall know no East, no West, no North, no South, but inhabited by a people liberty loving, patriotic, happy, and prosperous, with its lawmakers having no other purpose than to write such just laws as shall in the years to come be of service to human kind yet unborn.”

Sam Rayburn

Maiden speech in the House (May 6, 1913); reported in Congressional Record, vol. 50, p. 1249.

“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.”

Sam Rayburn

W. B. Ragsdale, "An Old Friend Writes of Rayburn", in U.S. News & World Report (October 23, 1961), p. 72.

“Learn to disagree without being disagreeable.”

Sam Rayburn

Advice to new congressmen (1949); quoted by Gerald Ford (2000). <br class="br">Source: Excerpt; Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, &quot;Civility,&quot; April 2000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4D2F89rFWU, video on the YouTube channel of the LBJ Library.

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