Harry S. Truman Quotes

president of the United States from 1945 to 1953; politician (1884–1972)

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Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States (1945–53), an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a United States senator from Missouri (1935–45) and briefly as vice president (1945) before he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was president during the final months of World War II, making the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was elected in his own right in 1948. He presided over an uncertain domestic scene as America sought its path after the war, and tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.

Bio from: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Portrait adapted from: Wikimedia Commons, National Archives and Records Administration. Office of Presidential Libraries. Harry S. Truman Library. (Public domain / CC0)

Alternative Names: Harry Truman • Truman • President Truman • H. S. Truman • H. Truman • Harry S Truman

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Engraved portrait of Harry S. Truman, facing left

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No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

Within the first few months I discovered that being President is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed.

You can't have anything worthwhile without difficulties.

Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me. I've got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.

I fired MacArthur because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was.

Tell him to go to hell; I'm for Jimmy Byrnes.

We are in a troublesome period, and some "nonsense" as you term it — but this is a great nation with a high purpose, and we shall come to our senses and resume our course.

If you can't dance then you are a loser.

მწამს, რომ ამერიკის პოლიტიკა მიმართული უნდა იყოს თავისუფალი ადამიანების დასახმარებლად, რომელნიც თავს იცავენ შეიარაღებული უმცირესობისა და გარეშე ძალების ზეწოლისგან... თუ ჩვენს ლიდერობას დავთმობთ ამ საქმეში, საფრთხეში ჩავაგდებთ მშვიდობას მსოფლიოში და თანაც საფრთხეში ჩავაგდებთ ჩვენი ქვეყნის კეთილდღეობასაც

I would rather be a Medal of Honor recipient then the President of the United States!

Poor Ike. He'll say do this and do that and nothing at all will happen.

Politics should make a thief, a roué, and a pessimist of anyone but I don't believe I am any of them...

"I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says, "Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest." I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have."

I think one man is just as good as another so long as he's honest and decent and not a nigger or a Chinaman. Uncle Wills says that the Lord made a white man from dust, a nigger from mud, and then threw 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 that negroes ought to be in Arica, yellow men in Asia, and white men in Europe and America.

What do you mean "helped create"? I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus.