Top 300 Harry S. Truman Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

— Harry S. Truman

52. “There is some risk involved in action, there always is. But there is far more risk in failure to act.”

— Harry S. Truman

53. “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

54. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

56. “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

57. “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

58. “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

59. “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

60. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

62. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

64. “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

65. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

69. “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

70. “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

71. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

74. “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

75. “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

76. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

80. “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

81. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

84. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

88. “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

89. “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

90. “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

91. “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

92. “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

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

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

95. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

96. “Secrecy and a free, democratic government don’t mix.”

— Harry S. Truman

97. “We seek a peaceful world, a prosperous world, a free world, a world of good neighbors, living on terms of equality and mutual respect, as Canada and the United States have lived for generations.”

— Harry S. Truman

98. “No nation on this globe should be more internationally minded than America because it was built by all nations.”

— Harry S. Truman

99. “It’s tougher to be a football coach than the President of the United States. You’ve got four years as a president, and they guard you. A football coach doesn’t have anyone to protect him when things go wrong.”

— Harry S. Truman

100. “A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.”

— Harry S. Truman