Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953, succeeding upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt after serving as the 34th vice president. He implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain communist expansion. These Harry S Truman quotes will motivate you.
Best Harry S Truman Quotes
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “An honest public servant can’t become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there’s hardly a difference.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “I think one man is just as good as another so long as he’s not a n*gger or a Chinaman. Uncle Will says that the Lord made a White man from dust, a n*gger from mud, then He threw up what was left and it came down a Chinaman. He does hate Chinese and Japs. So do I. It is race prejudice, I guess. But I am strongly of the opinion Negroes ought to be in Africa, Yellow men in Asia and White men in Europe and America.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “I sincerely regret the unfortunate choice of language which I used in my letter of August 29 to Congressman McDonough concerning the Marine Corps.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“Term limits would cure both senility and seniority- both terrible legislative diseases.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “The President is always abused. If he isn’t, he isn’t doing anything.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount…If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “When the Liberals said they were going to create a million new jobs, I didn’t think they were all going to be tax collectors. If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Without a strong educational system — free of government control — democracy is crippled. Knowledge is not only the key to power. It is the citadel of human freedom.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Everybody has the right to express what he thinks. That, of course, lets the crackpots in. But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“There is some risk involved in action, there always is. But there is far more risk in failure to act.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Of course I believe in free enterprise but in my system of free enterprise, the democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, never will be, room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. 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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “It doesn’t matter how big a ranch you own or how many cows you brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “He “wasn’t used to being criticized, and he never did get it through his head that’s what politics is all about. He was used to getting his ass kissed.”” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “There are always a lot of people so afraid of rocking the boat that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Ignorance and its hand-maidens, prejudice, intolerance, suspicion of our fellowman, breed dictators and breed wars.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Someday 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 efficiency experts and become a nation of God’s people once more.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman - “Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American’s guarantee of freedom.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Divine Providence has played a great part in our history. I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose. It is not given to us to know fully what that purpose is, but I think we may be sure of one thing, and that is that our country is intended to do all it can, in cooperating with other nations to help created peace and preserve peace in the world. It is given to defend the spiritual values-the moral code-against the vast forces of evil that seek to destroy them.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if He had taken a poll in the land of Israel? Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn’t polls or public opinion alone of the moment that counts.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “A society will be judged by how it treats its weakest members” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Religious and racial persecution is moronic at all times, perhaps the most idiotic of human stupidities.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“It’s not the hand that signs the laws that holds the destiny of America. It’s the hand that casts the ballot.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as Displaced Persons as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I’ve found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “The human race has reached a turning point. Man has opened the secrets of nature and mastered new powers. If he uses them wisely, he can reach new heights of civilization. If he uses them foolishly, they may destroy him. Man must create the moral and legal framework for the world which will insure that his new powers are used for good and not for evil.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “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.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “The difficulty with businessmen entering politics, after they’ve had a successful business career, is that they want to start at the top.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “We must never forget that this country was founded by men who came to these shores to worship God as they pleased. Catholics, Jews, and Protestants, all came here for this great purpose. They did not come here to do as they pleased – but to worship God as they pleased, and that is an important distinction.” ~ Harry S. Truman
- “You cannot get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have the facts, you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on.” ~ Harry S. Truman
