Harry S. Truman Quotes

224 Sourced Quotes

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.

Harry S. Truman

You should never form judgments from front page headlines. As with a contract, the fine print on the inside pages should be carefully studied.

Harry S. Truman

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.

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

There isn't any question about Washington's greatness. If his administration had been a failure, there would have been no United States. A lesser man couldn't have done it.... Washington was both a great administrator and a great leader, a truly great man in every way.

Harry S. Truman

I always considered statesmen to be more expendable than soldiers.

Harry S. Truman

We fully realize today that victory in war requires a mighty united effort. Certainly, victory in peace calls for, and must receive, an equal effort. Man has learned long ago, that it is impossible to live unto himself. This same basic principle applies today to nations. We were not isolated during the war. We dare not now become isolated in peace.

Harry S. Truman

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.

Harry S. Truman

I enjoyed my new position as vice president, but it took me a while to get used to the fact that I no longer had the voting privileges I had enjoyed for 10 years as a senator.

Harry S. Truman

I have had enough experience in all my years, and have read enough of the past, to know that advice to grandchildren is usually wasted.

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

With firm faith in our hearts, to sustain us along the hard road to victory, we will find our way to a secure peace, for the ultimate benefit of all humanity.

Harry S. Truman

The only thing you have to worry about is bad luck. I never had bad luck.

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.

Harry S. Truman

You know of our sympathetic interest in this country in Iran's desire to control its natural resources. From this point of view we were happy to see that the British Government has on its part accepted the principle of nationalization.

Harry S. Truman

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.

Harry S. Truman

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.

Harry S. Truman

I suppose that history will remember my term in office as the years when the Cold War began to overshadow our lives. I have hardly a day in office that has not been dominated by this all-embracing struggle. And always in the background there has been the atomic bomb. But when history says that my term of office saw the begining of the Cold War, it will also say that in those eight years we have set the course that can win it.

Harry S. Truman

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.

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

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

Harry S. Truman

The United States is not so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable that we can ignore what the world thinks of us or our record.

Harry S. Truman

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.

Harry S. Truman

As you get older, you get tired of doing the same things over and over again, so you think Christmas has changed. It hasn't. It's you who has changed.

Harry S. Truman

We have found that it is easier for men to die together on the field of battle than it is for them to live together at home in peace.

Harry S. Truman

Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoples of the world into triumphant action, not only against their human oppressors, but also against their ancient enemies-hunger, misery, and despair.

Harry S. Truman