Harry S. Truman Quotes

May the sun never set on American baseball.

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 you tell Congress everything about the world situation, they get hysterical. If you tell them nothing, they go fishing.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.

He wanted to know what assurance we could give the American people that we aren't getting the tar licked out of us by the North Korean army. It has never happened to us. It won't happen this time.

Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of his abilities. Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.

I want a one-armed economist, that way he cannot say, 'on the other hand'.

All through history it's the nations that have given most to generals and the least to the people that have been the first to fall

We are trying to prevent a third world war.

You should never form judgments from front page headlines. As with a contract, the fine print on the inside pages should be carefully studied.

But Quantrill and his men were no more bandits than the men on the other side. I've been to reunions of Quantrill's men two or three times. All they were trying to do was protect the property on the Missouri side of the line ...

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

We can all pray. We all should pray. We should ask the fulfillment of Gods will. We should ask for courage, wisdom, for the quietness of soul which comes alone to them who place their lives in His hands.

Everybody is headed for the same place, and they are headed on the same train, and under the same engineer.

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.

I'm the ultimately responsible person in this organization. Other people can pass the buck to me, but I can't pass the buck to anyone else.

It's not the hand that signs the laws that holds the destiny of America. It's the hand that casts the ballot.

When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency.

We can never tell what is in store for us.

The only thing you have to worry about is bad luck. I never had bad luck.

Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.

The Republican Party either corrupts its liberals or it expels them.

Andrew Johnson wasn't too bad, but he was overwhelmed by a hostile Congress.

A man who is influenced by the polls or is afraid to make decisions which make him unpopular is not a man to represent the welfare of the country.

It is time that all Americans realized that the place of labor is side by side with the businessman and with the farmer, and not one-degree lower.

The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.

When contemplating General Eisenhower winning the Presidential election, Truman said, Hell sit here, and hell say, Do this! Do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ikeit wont be a bit like the Army. Hell find it very frustrating.

Partisanship must end at the waters edge.

Work Hard. Do your best. Keep your word. Never get too big for your britches. Trust in God. Have no fear; and Never forget a friend.

Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.

For reasons of national security and out of consideration for some people still alive I have omitted certain material. Some of this material cannot be made available for many years, perhaps for many generations.

Prosperous farmers make for a prosperous nation, and when farmers are in trouble, the nation is in trouble.

Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

As you get older, you get tired of doing the same things over and over again, so you think Christmas has changed. It hasn't. It's you who has changed.

We all have to recognise, no matter how great our strength, that we must deny ourselves the licence to do always as we please.

When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint - understand what he is trying to do - nine times out of ten he is trying to do right.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

The buck stops here!

I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.

The greatest honor that has come to me, and that can ever come to me in my life, is to be Grand Master of Masons in Missouri.

(The AMA is) "just another mean trust."

In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak.Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores.

Any story worth telling is worth exaggerating.

This Nation was established by men who believed in God ... You will see the evidence of this deep religious faith on every hand.

If you can't convince them [with your logic] then just confound them [with your wit.]

I am proud of my part in the creation of this new state. Our Government was the first to recognize the State of Israel.

I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on Earth.

In the long view, no nation is any healthier than its children.

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

To me party platforms are contracts with the people.

People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo.

The friendless, the weak, the victims of prejudice and public excitement are entitled to the same quality of justice and fair play that the rich, the powerful, the well-connected, and the fellow with pull thinks he can get.

I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.

On tight money: It reflects a reversion to the old idea that the tree can be fertilized at the top instead of at the bottom - the old trickle-down theory.

The stress stops here

You members of this Conference are to be the architects of the better world. In your hands rests our future.

We worship money instead of honour.

I got very well acquainted with Joe Stalin, and I like old Joe! He is a decent fellow. But Joe is a prisoner of the Politburo.

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

No one who has not had the responsibility can really understand what it is like to be President, not even his closest aides or members of his immediate family. There is no end to the chain of responsibility that binds him, and he is never allowed to forget that he is President.

A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.

Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you.

Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader.

May we Americans all live up to our glorious heritage.

The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's.

France is France and a grand place for Frenchman.

I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have the sense to do without my persuading them. That's all the powers of the President amount to.

The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.

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.

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.

The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him his is not.

I can remember when a good politician had to be 75 percent ability and
25 percent actor, but I can well see the day when the reverse could be
true.

He was a great president in his first term; in his second term, he wasn't the same Grover Cleveland he was to begin with ... Cleveland reestablished the presidency by being not only a chief executive but a leader.

Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

The President is always abused. If he isn't, he isn't doing anything.

First of all, it is clear that our efforts in Korea can blunt the will of the Chinese Communists to continue the struggle. The United Nations forces have put up a tremendous fight in Korea and have inflicted very heavy casualties on the enemy. Our forces are stronger now than they have been before. These are plain facts which may discourage the Chinese Communists from continuing their attack.

We must help to the limits of our strength. And we will.

There is no gratitude for things past. Gratitude is always for what you're going to do for people in the future.

Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness.

The Marshall Plan will go down in history as one of America's greatest contributions to the peace of the world.

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

You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook.

Men make history. History does not make the man.

The United States should not under any circumstances throw away our gun until we are sure the rest of the world cannot arm against us.

Men make history, not the other way around.

If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again.

Everybody has the right to express what he thinks. That, of course, lets the crackpots in. But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in.

To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.

If you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen.

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

The absence of war is not peace.

I said that an expert was a fella who was afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn't be an expert anymore.

I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American's guarantee of freedom.

All my life I have fought against prejudice and intolerance.

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

It is organized as a fellowship of men, a system of morals, a philosophy taught by degrees through the use of symbol, story, legend, pictures, and drama. It has served as a center of union among differing backgrounds, cultures, and countries. It serves as the means of conciliating true friendship among persons, who, because of differences, must have otherwise remained at a perpetual distance.

If you think somebody is telling a big lie about you, the only way to answer is with the whole truth.

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.