Quotes Library

September 7, 2025

If you want to get along, go along.

Sam Rayburn (1882–1961), American politician, The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.173

How will you make a name for yourself if you just go along, to get along? How strong is the desire to stand out from the rest of the pack, and to what end?

If a majority is what carries the vote on any issue, going along is an absolute necessity. If you cannot park your ideals, if practical approaches are anathema, if you view the perfect as preferable to the possible, you’re in the wrong career.


More Quotes

May 17, 2025
The ratio of literacy to illiteracy is constant, but nowadays the illiterates can read.
May 25, 2025
When I was a boy I was told that anyone could become President.
January 4, 2025
…in politics you’ve got to learn that overnight chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.
Page 42 of 122