Top 300 Harry S. Truman Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I said that an expert was a fella who was afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn’t be an expert anymore.”

— Harry S. Truman

52. “I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.”

— Harry S. Truman

53. “But all of us-at home, at war, wherever we may be-are within the reach of God’s love and power. We all can pray. We all should pray. We should ask the fulfillment of God’s will.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

55. “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

— Harry S. Truman

56. “If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

58. “Men make history. History does not make the man.”

— Harry S. Truman

59. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

60. “Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.”

— Harry S. Truman

61. “We have to get tough with the Russians. They don’t know how to behave. They are like bulls in a china shop. They are only 25 years old. We are over 100 and the British are centuries older. We have got to teach them how to behave.”

— Harry S. Truman

62. “The Russians are liars – you can’t trust them. At Potsdam they agreed to everything and broke their word. It’s too bad the second world power is like this, but that’s the way it is, and we must keep our strength.”

— Harry S. Truman

63. “There’s nothing better than cake but more cake.”

— Harry S. Truman

64. “I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in a cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona: “Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest.””

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

66. “The White House is the finest prison in the world.”

— Harry S. Truman

67. “It doesn’t matter how big a ranch you own or how many cows you brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather.”

— Harry S. Truman

68. “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

69. “I fear we are too much concerned with material things to remember that our real strength lies in spiritual values.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

71. “Religious and racial persecution is moronic at all times, perhaps the most idiotic of human stupidities.”

— Harry S. Truman

72. “When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.”

— Harry S. Truman

73. “I can always get along with an honest friend.”

— Harry S. Truman

74. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

76. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

77. “Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.”

— Harry S. Truman

78. “Prosperous farmers make for a prosperous nation, and when farmers are in trouble, the nation is in trouble.”

— Harry S. Truman

79. “I’m the ultimately responsible person in this organization. Other people can pass the buck to me, but I can’t pass the buck to anyone else.”

— Harry S. Truman

80. “Being President is a little bit like riding a tiger. You have to keep riding, or else you will be swallowed up by it!”

— Harry S. Truman

81. “Although I hold the highest civil honour in the world, I have always regarded my rank and title as a Past Grand Master of Masons the greatest honour that had ever come to me.”

— Harry S. Truman

82. “The atomic bomb is too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world.”

— Harry S. Truman

83. “We must build a new world, a far better world – one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.”

— Harry S. Truman

84. “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.”

— Harry S. Truman

85. “The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.”

— Harry S. Truman

86. “There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”

— Harry S. Truman

87. “Our goal must not be peace in our time but peace for all time.”

— Harry S. Truman

88. “I’m very proud that I’m smart enough to get to the point.”

— Harry S. Truman

89. “It isn’t polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership – men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.”

— Harry S. Truman

90. “Brave men don’t belong to any one country. I respect bravery wherever I see it.”

— Harry S. Truman

91. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

92. “I can deal with Stalin. He is honest, but smart as hell.”

— Harry S. Truman

93. “In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers. Real security will be found only in law and in justice.”

— Harry S. Truman

94. “We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God.”

— Harry S. Truman

95. “There is no gratitude for things past. Gratitude is always for what you’re going to do for people in the future.”

— Harry S. Truman

96. “When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.”

— Harry S. Truman

97. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

98. “In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still.”

— Harry S. Truman

99. “I don’t give a damn about “The Missouri Waltz” but I can’t say it out loud because it’s the song of Missouri. It’s as bad as “The Star-Spangled Banner” so far as music is concerned.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman