Harry S. Truman quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Harry S. Truman on Wise Famous Quotes.

I've had a few setbacks in my life, but I never gave up.

Keep working on a plan. Make no little plans. Make the biggest plan
you can think of and spend the rest of your life carrying it out.

He'll sit there are he'll say "Do this! Do that!" and nothing will happen. Poor Ike - it won't be a bit like the army.

May the sun never set on American baseball.

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

Being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or he is swallowed.

All my life I have fought against prejudice and intolerance.

Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time

Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it.

Nothing is more important in our national life than the welfare of our children.

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.

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

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.

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.

There is some risk involved in action, there always is. But there is far more risk in failure to act.

Too many?pass judgement on wartime decisions in the luxury of a peacetime environment.

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

If we let Korea down, the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another.

Leadership is getting people to do things that they don't want to do.

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.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.

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

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

Some questions cannot be answered, but they can be decided.

Any story worth telling is worth exaggerating.

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

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.

I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

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

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

This is a Christian nation.

Whenever the press quits abusing me, I know I'm in the wrong pew.

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.

At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.

I like riding a bicycle built for two
by myself.

I've said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

How do you live a long life? "Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast."

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

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

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

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

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

I believe in the brotherhood of man, not merely the brotherhood of white men but the brotherhood of all men before law.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Beware of the guy praying loudest in the amen corner.

I can deal with Stalin. He is honest, but smart as hell.

An optimist is presented with a problem and sees an opportunity. A pessimist is presented with an opportunity and sees a problem.

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

The absence of war is not peace.

I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another.

The United States has become great because we, as a people, have been able to work together for great objectives even while differing about details.

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.

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

Justice remains the greatest power on earth. To that tremendous power alone will we submit.

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

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

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

The buck stops here!

I do not believe in shooting anything that cannot shoot back.

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

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

I don't feel qualified to be president either, but I've got the job.

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

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

I always considered statesmen to be more expendable than soldiers.

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

People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo.

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.

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

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

Doing the right thing is easy. [It is] much more difficult [to ... ] figure out what [the right thing] is.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.

Whenever a man does the best he can, then that is all he can do.

Ignorance and its hand-maidens, prejudice, intolerance, suspicion of our fellowman, breed dictators and breed wars.

One of the difficulties with all our institutions is the fact that we've emphasized the reward instead of the service.

When the decision is up before you-and on my desk I have a motto which says "The buck stops here"-the decision has to be made.

Politics is a fascinating game, because politics is government. It is the art of government.

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

It sure is hell to be president.