I like power and I like to use it. Sam Rayburn More Quotes by Sam Rayburn More Quotes From Sam Rayburn Too many critics mistake the deliberations of the Congress for its decisions. Sam Rayburn congress decision mistake Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build it. Sam Rayburn 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] Sam Rayburn Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time. Sam Rayburn You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too. Sam Rayburn A jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one. Sam Rayburn kick build down carpenter Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations. Sam Rayburn wait good circumstances action