Harry S. Truman Quotes

224 Sourced Quotes

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.

Harry S. Truman
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.

Harry S. Truman
There is nothing sacred about the pay-as-you-go idea so far as I am concerned, except that it represents the soundest principle of financing that I know.

Harry S. Truman
I believe that we have learned the importance of maintaining military strength as a means of preventing war. We have found that a sound military system is necessary in time of peace if we are to remain at peace. Aggressors in the past, relying on our apparent lack of military force, have unwisely precipitated war. Although they have been led to destruction by their misconception of our strength, we have paid a terrible price for our unpreparedness.

Harry S. Truman
At this moment, I have in my heart a prayer. As I have assumed my heavy duties, I humbly pray, Almighty God, in the words of King Solomon: 'Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great people?' I ask only to be a good and faithful servant of my LORD and my people.

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

Harry S. Truman
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.

Harry S. Truman
The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction.

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

Harry S. Truman
No nation on this globe should be more internationally minded than America because it was built by all nations.

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
To me, party platforms are contracts with the people.

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

Harry S. Truman
My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth there's hardly any difference.

Harry S. Truman
Effective, reciprocal, and enforceable safeguards acceptable to all nations.

Harry S. Truman
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.

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

Harry S. Truman
We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God

Harry S. Truman
I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.

Harry S. Truman
Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed. The fantastically crowded nine months of 1945 taught me that a President either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt I could let up for a single moment.

Harry S. Truman
On tight money: It reflects a reversion to the old idea that the tree can be fertilized at the top instead of at the bottom — the old trickle-down theory.

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
The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want.

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

Harry S. Truman
There shall be created in the National Military Establishment an advisory committee to be known as the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, which shall be composed of seven members to be designated by the President.

Harry S. Truman