Harry S. Truman Quotes

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)

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.

Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.

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.

You want a friend in this city? [Washington, DC.] Get a dog!

[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.

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.

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.

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

Once a decision was made, I didn't worry about it afterward...

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

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.

Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I'll show you a crook.

There's nothing better than cake but more cake.

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

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.