Sam Rayburn

Who was Sam Rayburn?

Samuel Taliaferro "Sam" Rayburn was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for 17 years, the longest tenure in U.S. history. He is also one of only two Speakers to serve more than one non-consecutive term, and the only Democrat to do so; the other being Joseph William Martin, Jr. He is also the only one to serve three different terms as Speaker.

Famous Quotes:

• Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build it.
• If a man has common sense, he has all the sense there is.
• Youll never get mixed up if you simply tell the truth. Then you dont have to remember what you have said, and you never forget what you have said.
• You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.
• 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.
• A jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
• Too many critics mistake the deliberations of the Congress for its decisions.
• Dont try to go too fast. Learn your job. Dont ever talk until you know what youre talking about. If you want to get along, go along.
• If you want to get along, go along.
• 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. [Applause]