Harry S. Truman Quotes

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.

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.

All will concede that in order to have good neighbors, we must also be good neighbors. That applies in every field of human endeavor.

The most peaceful thing in the world is plowing a field. Chances are you’ll do your best thinking that way.

We must have strong minds, ready to accept facts as they are.

I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

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

The President is always abused. If he isn't, he isn't doing anything.

For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy making arm of the government.

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.

No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs.

Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader.

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.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

Washington is a very easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got there in the first place.

I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have the sense to do without my persuading them. That's all the powers of the President amount to.

I come to the office each morning and stay for long hours doing what has to be done to the best of my ability. And when you've done the best you can, you can't do any better.

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace.

Whenever the press quits abusing me I know Im in the wrong pew. I dont mind it because when they throw bricks at meIm a pretty good shot myself and I usually throw em back at em.

When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency.

Herbert Hoover once ran on the slogan, 'Two cars in every garage'. Apparently, the Republican candidate this year is running on the slogan, 'Two families in every garage'.

If you don't have your own goals, you'll be doomed to work toward someone else's.

I think there is an immense shortage of Christian charity among so-called Christians.

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.

No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones.

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.

Tact is the ability to step on a man's toes without messing up the shine on his shoes.

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.

We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

About the meanest thing you can say about a man is that he means well.

If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again.

The greatest honor that has come to me, and that can ever come to me in my life, is to be Grand Master of Masons in Missouri.

There is enough in the world for everyone to have plenty, to live happily, and to be at peace with his neighbors.

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.

When a leader is in the Democratic Party he's a boss. When he's in the Republican Party he's nothing but a leader.

How do you live a long life? "Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast."

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

The Republican Party either corrupts its liberals or it expels them.

When you have to deal with a beast, you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.

An optimist is presented with a problem and sees an opportunity. A pessimist is presented with an opportunity and sees a problem.

Our goal must be not peace in our time, but peace for all time.

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.

Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought.

I can always get along with an honest friend.

If I want to be great, I have to win the victory over myself...self-d iscipline.