Harry Truman Quotes

Politics sure is the ruination of many a good man.

Politics should make a thief, a roué, and a pessimist of anyone but I don't believe I am any of them...

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

The union of our arms in

You can't have anything worthwhile without difficulties.

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

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.

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.

Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.

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.

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

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.

MacArthur's worse than the Cabots & the Lodges-they at least talked to one another before they told God what to do.

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.

There's nothing better than cake but more cake.

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.

Nearly every crisis seems to be the worst one, but after it's over, it isn't so bad.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

[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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.

Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.

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[ ... ]

It is ignorance that causes most mistakes.

The 'C' students run the world.

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.

Believe and you're halfway there.

If you can't dance then you are a loser.

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

Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I'll show you a crook.

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.

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

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.

Actions are the seeds of fate. Deeds grow into destiny.

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

The bulk of the uranium available to

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.

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

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.

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

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

large numbers of reporters and

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

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

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

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

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

worked, the bomb, in all probability, would shorten

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.

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]

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.

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

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

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

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