As a politician and citizen, Sam Rayburn was a plain talker and straight shooter. Although he lived an almost monastic life as a politician and lawmaker, he loved interacting with people and enjoyed the simple pleasures of farm and ranch work. Pieces of his wit and wisdom are listed below:
- Any fellow who will cheat for you will cheat against you.
- If a man has good sense, he has about all the sense there is.
- The size of a man has nothing to do with his height.
- Without vision, nations perish.
- If there is anything I hate more than an old fogie, it's a young fogie.
- There is no degree in honesty. You are either honest or dishonest.
- My goal in life is to have people think well of me.
- I have found that people respect you if you tell them where you stand.
- The greatest ambition a man can have is to be a just man.
- I have always been a disciple of the doctrine that people are good folks, and I have great faith in them.
- The way to get ahead in the House is to stand for something and to know what it is you stand for.
- The one thing besides people that I claim to know is land.
- No one has a finer command of language than the person who keeps his mouth shut.
- Sometimes, in order to get along, you have to go along.