Harry S. Truman quotes:

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.

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

I tend to pair up Benjamin Harrison and Dwight Eisenhower because they're the two presidents I can think of who most preferred laziness to labor.... There's not much else you can say about Harrison except that he was president of the United States.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

When you can't do any housecleaning because everything that goes on is a damned secret, then we're on our way to something the Founding Fathers didn't have in mind. Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

The atom bomb was no 'great decision.' It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I have to decide Japanese strategy - shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade? That is my hardest decision to date. But I'll make it when I have all the facts.

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.

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

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

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

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.

There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for the crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have.

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.

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.

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.

Despite his unimpressive appearance and manner, he was a brilliant fellow with a crystal-clear mind.... It was just that, when it came time for him to act like an executive, he was like a great many other people; when the time comes to make decisions, they have difficulty doing it.

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

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

Without a strong educational system democracy is crippled. Knowledge is not only key to power. It is the citadel of human freedom.

I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it - not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.

Any story worth telling is worth exaggerating.

The fundamental basis of this Nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.

This generation, raised on "Eyewitness News," conditioned by the instant replay, and spared the illumination that comes from tedious historical study, tends to be even more ahistorical than most.

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.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

Some day we'll awake, have a reformation of the heart, teach our kids honor and kill a few sex psychologists, put boys in high schools with men teachers (not sissies), close all the girls' finishing schools, shoot all the effeciency experts and become a nation of God's people once more.

It's tougher to be a football coach than the President of the United States. You've got four years as a president, and they guard you. A football coach doesn't have anyone to protect him when things go wrong.

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.

Herbert Hoover once ran on the slogan, 'Two cars in every garage'. Apparently, the Republican candidate this year is running on the slogan, 'Two families in every garage'.

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.

I don't want this office, this responsibility, any longer, even if you want me. Find the strongest and most able and God bless you. Good-bye.

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.

Some of the presidents were great and some of them weren't. I can say that, because I wasn't one of the great presidents, but I had a good time trying to be one, I can tell you that.

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.

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima. . . . The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs.

I can always get along with an honest friend.

My favorite animal is the mule. He has more horse sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating - and he knows when to stop working.

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

I don't give a damn about "The Missouri Waltz" but I can't say it out loud because it's the song of Missouri. It's as bad as "The Star-Spangled Banner" so far as music is concerned.

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.

Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have faith in it 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.

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

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.

The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.

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

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

Although I hold the highest civil honour in the world, I have always regarded my rank and title as a Past Grand Master of Masons the greatest honour that had ever come to me.

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.

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

I consider Monroe a pretty minor president. In spite of the Monroe Doctrine. That's the only important thing he ever did more or less on his own, when you really get down to it.

How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt?

Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.

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

The newcomers quickly learned their way about and soon felt at home. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided them, as well as many other pioneers, with an opportunity to acquire land and establish family farms. To the land-hungry immigrants, the tough prairie sod seemed a golden opportunity and they conquered it by hard work.

The America to which these Swedish settlers came was a land that needed the hardy qualities they brought. It was not a land that was particularly softhearted towards newcomers, but everyone believed that each should have a fair chance regardless of his origin.

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

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

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.

The Russians are liars - you can't trust them. At Potsdam they agreed to everything and broke their word. It's too bad the second world power is like this, but that's the way it is, and we must keep our strength.

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.

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

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

I have just read your lousy review. You sound like a frustrated old man who never made a success, an eightulcer man on a four ulcer job ... I have never met you but if I do, you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and a supporter below.

I like riding a bicycle built for two--by myself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers. Real security will be found only in law and in justice.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

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

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

We are profoundly grateful for the blessings bestowed upon us: the preservation of our freedom, so dearly bought and so highly prized; our opportunities for human welfare and happiness, so limitless in their scope; our material prosperity, so far surpassing that of earlier years; and our private spiritual blessings, so deeply cherished by all. For these we offer fervent thanks to God.

Peace is precious to us. It is the way of life we strive for with all the strength and wisdom we possess. But more precious than peace are freedom and justice. We will fight, if fight we must, to keep our freedom and to prevent justice from being destroyed.

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

The difficulty with businessmen entering politics, after they've had a successful business career, is that they want to start at the top.

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

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.

I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have - When he gives everything that is in him to do the job he has before him. That is all you can ask of him and that is what I have tried to do.

There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.

Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.

I received a card the other day from Steve Early which said, "Don't Worry Me--I am an 8 Ulcer Man on 4 Ulcer Pay.

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.

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.

...as soon as the war was over, they had to justify what was done.

[T]he guilty as well as the innocent are entitled to due process of law. They are entitled to a fair trial. They are entitled to counsel. They are entitled to fair treatment from the police. The law enforcement officer has the same duty as the citizen-indeed, he has a higher duty-to abide by the letter and spirit of our Constitution and laws. You yourselves must be careful to obey the letter of the law. You yourselves must be intellectually honest in the enforcement of the law.

[The American President] has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues."¦ The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make 'em behave. Well, 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.

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

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.

A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.

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.

A man who is not interested in politics is not doing his patriotic duty toward maintaining the constitution of the United States.

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.