Harry S Truman Quotations

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

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

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

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

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

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

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

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

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.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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's plain hokum. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em. It's an old political trick. But this time it won't work.

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

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.

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

I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

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.

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

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

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

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.

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.

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

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

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Nixon is a shifty-eyed goddamn liar. . . . .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

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

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.

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.

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

It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.

I studied the lives of great men and famous women; and 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.

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.

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

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

Whenever I make a bum decision, I go out and make another one

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

When you've done the best you can, you can't do any better

The president is the representative of the whole nation and he's the only lobbyist that all the one hundred and sixty million people in the country have.

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

I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it

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 have read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an eight ulcer man on a four ulcer job Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes and perhaps a supporter below.

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog

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

The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moseson the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comesfrom the teachings...of Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think weemphasize that enough these days.

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

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

I fear that machines are several centuries ahead of the mortals.

If I want to be great I have to win the victory over myself... self-discipline.

Our religious faith gives us the answer to the false beliefs of Communism... I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose.

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

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.

Men make history. History does not make the man.

Never, never waste a minute on regret. It's a waste of time.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

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

[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.

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.

May the sun never set on American baseball.

I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in a cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona: "Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest."