Harry Truman Quotes

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

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

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

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.

A President cannot always be popular.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

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

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

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.

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

As Americans, we believe that every man should be free to live his life as he wishes. He should be limited only by his responsibility to his fellow countrymen.

B

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

C

Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything.

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

He's one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

I

I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

I don't want it torn down. I think it's the greatest monstrosity in America.

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. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.

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.

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.

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

I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.

I was the only calm one in the house. You see I've been shot at by experts.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

If I hadn't been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house.

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

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

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

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

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.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

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

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

It seems like there was always somebody for supper.

It sure is hell to be president.

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

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.

L

Leadership is the art to have people do something they dislike, and have them enjoy it

M

[McCarthyism is ] "The use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism or security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society."

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

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

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.

N

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

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.

S

Stifling of the free expression of opinion is a long step toward totalitarianism.

T

That precedent should continue-not by a Constitutional amendment but by custom based on the honor of the man in the office.

The buck stops here!

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.

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.

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

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

The reward of suffering is experience.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

Therefore to re-establish that custom, although by a quibble I could say I've only had one term, I am not a candidate and will not accept the nomination for another term.

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches - not I.

U

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

We must build a new world, a far better world - one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.

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

We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.

Well, I wouldn't say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

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.

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

Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me.

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

Why, this fellow don't know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday.

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

Y

You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I'm taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible.

You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don't believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now

You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgements about what is going on.