Harry S. Truman Quotes

When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril.

Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

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

Religious and racial persecution is moronic at all times, perhaps the most idiotic of human stupidities.

They said we were soft, that we would not fight, that we could not win. We are not a warlike nation. We do not go to war for gain or for territory; we go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. I think I told every one of them that I would rather have that medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, than to be President of the United States.

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

An honest public servant can't become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service.

This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.

When a High Explosive shell bursts in fifteen feet and does you no damage, you can bet your sweet life you bear a charmed life and no mistake.

We seek a peaceful world, a prosperous world, a free world, a world of good neighbors, living on terms of equality and mutual respect, as Canada and the United States have lived for generations.

The responsibility of the great states is to serve, and not to dominate, the world.

I think there is an immense shortage of Christian charity among so-called Christians.

It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.

Most of the time most people know the right thing to do ...its the doing of it that gives them trouble

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

It's plain hokum. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em. It's an old political trick. But this time it won't work.

A leader has to lead otherwise he has no business in politics.

This attack has made it clear, beyond all doubt, that the international Communist movement is willing to use armed invasion to conquer independent nations. An act of aggression such as this creates a very real danger to the security of all free nations.

When you have to deal with a beast, you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.

To you who answered the call of your country and served in its Armed Forces to bring about the total defeat of the enemy, I extend the heartfelt thanks of a grateful Nation. As one of the Nation's finest, you undertook the most severe task one can be called upon to perform. Because you demonstrated the fortitude, resourcefulness and calm judgment necessary to carry out that task, we now look to you for leadership and example to further exalting our country in peace.

The Republican party still helps the rich and sticks a knife in the back of the poor.

To reporters the day after his accession to the presidency, April 13, 1945: When they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.

I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in a cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona: "Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest."

Being President is a little bit like riding a tiger. You have to keep riding, or else you will be swallowed up by it!

I couldn't see well enough to play (baseball) when I was a boy, so they gave me a special job - they made me an umpire.

If we do not want to die together in war, we must learn to live together in peace.

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

We must face the fact that peace must be built on power, as well as upon good will and good deeds.

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.

A leader is the man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it.

The atomic bomb is too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world.

Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em.

The human race has reached a turning point. Man has opened the secrets of nature and mastered new powers. If he uses them wisely, he can reach new heights of civilization. If he uses them foolishly, they may destroy him. Man must create the moral and legal framework for the world which will insure that his new powers are used for good and not for evil.

Our goal must be not peace in our time, but peace for all time.

I do not understand a mind which sees a gracious beneficence in spending money to slay and maim human beings in almost unimaginable numbers and deprecates the expenditure of a smaller sum to patch up the ills of mankind.

There are always a lot of people so afraid of rocking the boat that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way.

Term limits would cure both senility and seniority- both terrible legislative diseases.

Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought.

We fully realize today that victory in war requires a mighty united effort. Certainly, victory in peace calls for, and must receive, an equal effort. Man has learned long ago, that it is impossible to live unto himself. This same basic principle applies today to nations. We were not isolated during the war. We dare not now become isolated in peace.

Washington is a very easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got there in the first place.

The only new thing is history we don't know.

If we do not abolish war on this earth, then surely one day war will abolish us from the earth.

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.

I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.

Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty.