Sam Rayburn on LBJ's recuperation from his heart attack: "It would kill him if he relaxed.

— Robert A. Caro

That speech (Daniel Webster's) “raised the idea of Union above contract or expediency and enshrined it in the American heart.

— Robert A. Caro

The air of compromise is rarely appreciated fully by men of principle. C. Van Woodward

— Robert A. Caro

The author describes Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn as "seldom at ease without a gavel in his hand.

— Robert A. Caro

The breath of life of the Senate is, of course, continuity,

— Robert A. Caro

The farm work they hated was the only work they knew. Often, even the basic skills of plumbing or electricity or mechanical work were mysteries to them – as were the job discipline and the subtleties that children raised in the industrial world learn without thinking about them; starting work on time, working set hours, taking orders from strangers instead of their father, playing office politics.

— Robert A. Caro

Their anxiety, justified or not, was genuine,

— Robert A. Caro

The most important thing a man has to tell you is what he’s not telling you,” he said. “The most important thing he has to say is what he’s trying not to say.

— Robert A. Caro

They were interchangeable tools, and the catchy phrases continued without abatement.

— Robert A. Caro

While Lyndon Johnson was not, as his two assistants knew, a reader of books, he was, they knew, a reader of men— a great reader of men.

— Robert A. Caro