Harry Truman Quotes & Sayings

In most of my campaigns, I find it is best not to mention my opponent by name because, by doing so, it just gives him a chance to get into the headlines. — Harry Truman

All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about "creeping socialism." I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with - and almost surely we would have socialism in this country, real socialism. — Harry Truman

The Republicans believe in the minimum wage
the more the minimum, the better. — Harry Truman

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. — Harry Truman

The only thing that's really new is the history you don't know. — Harry Truman

Brave men don't belong to any one country. I respect bravery wherever I see it. — Harry Truman

The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not to dominate the world. — Harry Truman

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. — Harry Truman

Human life is something that comes to us from beyond this world, and the purpose of our society is to cherish it and to enable the individual to attain the highest achievement of which he is capable — Harry Truman

I fear we are too much concerned with material things to remember that our real strength lies in spiritual values. — Harry Truman

I'll come back to George Washington just long enough to say goodbye to him. He was a great man and a good man, and when his work was over as our great first president, he went back home to Virginia for his long-earned rest. Just three years later, on December 14, 1799, at the age of sixty-seven, he went to his final rest. As — Harry Truman

Poor Ike. He'll say do this and do that and nothing at all will happen. — Harry Truman

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference. — Harry Truman

No nation on this globe should be more internationally minded than America because it was built by all nations. — Harry Truman

Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. — Harry Truman

A person who is fundamentally honest doesn't need a code of ethics. The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are all the ethical code anybody needs. — Harry Truman

Men often mistake notoriety for fame, and would rather be noticed for their vices than not be noticed at all. — Harry Truman

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own. — Harry Truman

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants. — Harry Truman

It is ignorance that causes most mistakes. — Harry Truman

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves ... self-discipline with all of them came first. — Harry Truman

Actions are the seeds of fate. Deeds grow into destiny. — Harry Truman

I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he'd taken a poll in Egypt? — Harry Truman

Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice. — Harry Truman

You know when people can get excited over the ordinary things in life, they live — Harry Truman

I hope for some sort of peace - but I fear that machines are ahead of morals by some centuries and when morals catch up there'll be no reason for any of it. — Harry Truman

Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles. — Harry Truman

If you can't dance then you are a loser. — Harry Truman

A President cannot always be popular. — Harry Truman

The 'C' students run the world. — Harry Truman

My definition of a leader in a free country is a man who can persuade people to do what they don't want to do, or do what they're too lazy to do, and like it. — Harry Truman

We should resolve now that the health of this nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all it's citizens deserves the help of all the nation. — Harry Truman

I come to the office each morning and stay for long hours doing what has to be done to the best of my ability. And when you've done the best you can, you can't do any better. — Harry Truman

I think one man is just as good as another so long as he's not a nigger or a Chinaman. Uncle Will says that the Lord made a White man from dust, a nigger from mud, then He threw up what was left and it came down a Chinaman. He does hate Chinese and Japs. So do I. It is race prejudice, I guess. But I am strongly of the opinion Negroes ought to be in Africa, Yellow men in Asia and White men in Europe and America. — Harry Truman

If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. — Harry Truman

It is important to the peace of the world to understand each other and have full faith in each other's sincerity. That is all we ask; that is all we want[ ... ] — Harry Truman

Some smart alecs of those days after World War I used to say: The French fought for liberty, the British fought to control the seas, but the Americans fought for souvenirs. — Harry Truman

Mrs. Roosevelt seemed calm in her characteristic, graceful dignity. She stepped forward and placed her arm gently about my shoulder. "Harry," she said quietly, "the President is dead." For a moment, I could not bring myself to speak. The last news we had had from Warm Springs was that Mr. Roosevelt was recuperating nicely. In fact, he was apparently doing so well that no member of his immediate family, and not even his personal physician, was with him. All this flashed through my mind before I found my voice. "Is there anything I can do for you?" I asked at last. I shall never forget her deeply understanding reply. "Is there anything we can do for you?" she asked. "For you are the one in trouble now. — Harry Truman

The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know. — Harry Truman

large numbers of reporters and — Harry Truman

I fired MacArthur because he wouldn't respect the authority of the president. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was. — Harry Truman

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. — Harry Truman

I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo. — Harry Truman

He was a windbag. He made a great many orations, and I imagine he did a very good job, but he was still a windbag — Harry Truman

There's nothing better than cake but more cake. — Harry Truman

The most peaceful thing in the world is plowing a field. Chances are you'll do your best thinking that way. And that's why I've always thought and said, farmers are the smartest people in the world, they don't go for high hats and they can spot a phony a mile off. — Harry Truman

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
[Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950] — Harry Truman

There is a lure in power. It can get into a man's blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do. — Harry Truman

I shall continue to do what I think is right, whether anybody likes it or not. — Harry Truman

Believe and you're halfway there. — Harry Truman

We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. — Harry Truman

The dictators of the world say that if you tell a lie often enough, why, people will believe it. Well, if you tell the truth often enough, they'll believe it and go along with you. — Harry Truman

Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and to enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. And the time has now arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and to help them get that protection. — Harry Truman

On the one hand, the Republicans are telling industrial workers that the high cost of food in the cities is due to this government's farm policy. On the other hand, the Republicans are telling the farmers that the high cost of manufactured goods on the farm is due to this government's labor policy.
That's plain hokum. It's an old political trick: "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em." But this time it won't work. — Harry Truman

everything I've read about his death indicates that he died peacefully, and perhaps he died because he'd accomplished his purpose. He — Harry Truman

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself. — Harry Truman

We must have strong minds, ready to accept facts as they are. — Harry Truman

Politics sure is the ruination of many a good man. — Harry Truman

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell. — Harry Truman

We must remember that the test of our religious principles lies not just in what we say, not only in our prayers, not even in living blameless lives - but in what we do for others — Harry Truman

How many times do you have to get hit over the head until you figure out who's hitting you. — Harry Truman

[we are] going to continue to fight communism. Now I am going to tell you how we are not going to fight communism. We are not going to transform our fine FBI into a Gestapo secret police. That is what some people would like to do. We are not going to try to control what our people read and say and think. We are not going to turn the United States into a right-wing totalitarian country in order to deal with a left-wing totalitarian threat. — Harry Truman

Tact is the ability to step on a man's toes without messing up the shine on his shoes. — Harry Truman

Since childhood at my mother's knee, I have believed in honor, ethics and right living as its own reward. I find a very small minority who agree with me on that premise. — Harry Truman

Once a decision was made, I didn't worry about it afterward ... — Harry Truman

Within the first few months I discovered that being President is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed. — Harry Truman

I won't sell influence and I'm perfectly willing to be cussed if I'm right. — Harry Truman

People who run for office and are defeated aren't rejected in the usual sense of the word. They're just defeated because they couldn't get enough votes that one time. It doesn't mean the public despises them. It's a preference for somebody else for that particular office at that particular moment, that's all. The examples I've given have shown that when those men were passed up, they were still highly thought of and were still great men. There were a good many like that. You take the Adams family. After John Quincy Adams passed on, there were Adams descendants in Lincoln's cabinet. They wrote important histories and things of that kind. Even in the states, some good men are governors who have been defeated previously in elections, even in previous tries for governor. If they don't become pessimists and decide to lay down and take it, if they get up and start over again, why, they don't have any trouble. — Harry Truman

The bulk of the uranium available to — Harry Truman

I'm not one to insist that a man can't possibly make it without a lot of formal education, since my own formal education pretty much stopped when I graduated from Independence High School in 1901. And then there was a twenty-two-year gap, while I worked on a farm and as a railroad timekeeper and served in the Army and did a lot of other things, before I started to attend night classes at Kansas City Law School - and I left there in 1925 and never got a degree. But I've tried to increase my knowledge all my life by reading and reading and reading, — Harry Truman

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. — Harry Truman

Republicans don't like people to talk about depressions. You can hardly blame them for that. You remember the old saying: Don't talk about rope in the house where somebody has been hanged. — Harry Truman

I don't believe in anti-anything. A man has to have a program; you have to be for something, otherwise you will never get anywhere. — Harry Truman

Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home
but not for housing. They are strong for labor
but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage
the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all
but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine
for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing
but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing
so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it. — Harry Truman

The union of our arms in — Harry Truman

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. — Harry Truman

Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in. — Harry Truman

The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all. — Harry Truman

You want a friend in this city? [Washington, DC.] Get a dog! — Harry Truman

him up, of course. I don't know whether they — Harry Truman

Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures - character. — Harry Truman

The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount ... If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State. — Harry Truman

I once described Washington as a doer surrounded by thinkers. He knew how to make the thinkers work for him, and only a truly superb politician and leader is able to do that. — Harry Truman

Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers. — Harry Truman

I doubt if there is any problem in the world today - social, political or economic - that would not find a happy solution if approached in the spirit of the sermon on the mount. — Harry Truman

[I am] just a common everyday man whose instincts are to be ornery, who's anxious to be right. — Harry Truman

Dictatorship, by whatever name, is founded on the doctrine that the individual amounts to nothing; that the State is the only one that counts; and that men and women and children were put on earth solely for the purpose of serving the state. — Harry Truman

worked, the bomb, in all probability, would shorten — Harry Truman

I'm just a politician from Missouri and proud of it. — Harry Truman

Mama and Papa are more to blame (for delinquency) than the kids; parents should stay home and raise their children and spend less time in taverns. — Harry Truman

Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day. — Harry Truman