Top 300 Harry S. Truman Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”

— Harry S. Truman

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2. “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

— Harry S. Truman

Featured in: Leadership Quotes

3. “Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.”

— Harry S. Truman

4. “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”

— Harry S. Truman

5. “You can’t get rich in politics unless you’re a crook.”

— Harry S. Truman

6. “Work Hard. Do your best. Keep your word. Never get too big for your britches. Trust in God. Have no fear; and Never forget a friend.”

— Harry S. Truman

7. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

— Harry S. Truman

8. “A society will be judged by how it treats its weakest members.”

— Harry S. Truman

9. “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.”

— Harry S. Truman

10. “It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.”

— Harry S. Truman

11. “Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.”

— Harry S. Truman

12. “If you don’t have your own goals, you’ll be doomed to work toward someone else’s.”

— Harry S. Truman

13. “If you want to live like a Republican, you’ve got to vote for a Democrat.”

— Harry S. Truman

14. “I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

16. “The ‘C’ students run the world.”

— Harry S. Truman

17. “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”

— Harry S. Truman

18. “If we do not want to die together in war, we must learn to live together in peace.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

20. “Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

22. “No man should be allowed to be the President who does not understand hogs, or hasn’t been around a manure pile.”

— Harry S. Truman

23. “To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.”

— Harry S. Truman

24. “Tact is the ability to step on a man’s toes without messing up the shine on his shoes.”

— Harry S. Truman

25. “Every fairytale needs a good old fashion villain.”

— Harry S. Truman

26. “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

28. “Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures – character.”

— Harry S. Truman

29. “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.”

— Harry S. Truman

30. “Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, On the one hand on the other.”

— Harry S. Truman

31. “Without a strong educational system democracy is crippled. Knowledge is not only key to power. It is the citadel of human freedom.”

— Harry S. Truman

32. “When the decision is up before you-and on my desk I have a motto which says “The buck stops here”-the decision has to be made.”

— Harry S. Truman

33. “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

35. “I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another.”

— Harry S. Truman

36. “We worship money instead of honour.”

— Harry S. Truman

37. “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.”

— Harry S. Truman

38. “When we understand the other fellow’s viewpoint – understand what he is trying to do – nine times out of ten he is trying to do right.”

— Harry S. Truman

39. “If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military.”

— Harry S. Truman

40. “The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.”

— Harry S. Truman

41. “Once a decision was made, I didn’t worry about it afterward...”

— Harry S. Truman

42. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

43. “Politics is a fascinating game, because politics is government. It is the art of government.”

— Harry S. Truman

44. “I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.”

— Harry S. Truman

45. “I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.”

— Harry S. Truman

46. “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

47. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

48. “Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.”

— Harry S. Truman

49. “I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on Earth.”

— Harry S. Truman

50. “Term limits would cure both senility and seniority- both terrible legislative diseases.”

— Harry S. Truman