Top 300 Harry S. Truman Quotes (2023 Update)
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151. “The true foundation of the brotherhood of humankind is belief in the knowledge that God is the Father of humankind. For us, therefore, brotherhood is not only a generous impulse but also a divine command.”

— Harry S. Truman

152. “I have to decide Japanese strategy – shall we invade Japan proper or shall we bomb and blockade? That is my hardest decision to date. But I’ll make it when I have all the facts.”

— Harry S. Truman

153. “Any story worth telling is worth exaggerating.”

— Harry S. Truman

154. “Everybody is headed for the same place, and they are headed on the same train, and under the same engineer.”

— Harry S. Truman

155. “The responsibility of the great states is to serve, and not to dominate, the world.”

— Harry S. Truman

156. “People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo.”

— Harry S. Truman

157. “I believe in the brotherhood of man, not merely the brotherhood of white men but the brotherhood of all men before law.”

— Harry S. Truman

158. “The absence of war is not peace.”

— Harry S. Truman

159. “I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American’s guarantee of freedom.”

— Harry S. Truman

160. “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

— Harry S. Truman

161. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

162. “With firm faith in our hearts, to sustain us along the hard road to victory, we will find our way to a secure peace, for the ultimate benefit of all humanity.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

164. “If we do not abolish war on this earth, then surely one day war will abolish us from the earth.”

— Harry S. Truman

165. “You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.”

— Harry S. Truman

166. “You know of our sympathetic interest in this country in Iran’s desire to control its natural resources. From this point of view we were happy to see that the British Government has on its part accepted the principle of nationalization.”

— Harry S. Truman

167. “I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.”

— Harry S. Truman

168. “We are trying to prevent a third world war.”

— Harry S. Truman

169. “I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.”

— Harry S. Truman

170. “Justice remains the greatest power on earth. To that tremendous power alone will we submit.”

— Harry S. Truman

171. “The United States should not under any circumstances throw away our gun until we are sure the rest of the world cannot arm against us.”

— Harry S. Truman

172. “At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.”

— Harry S. Truman

173. “Everybody has the right to express what he thinks. That, of course, lets the crackpots in. But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in.”

— Harry S. Truman

174. “We can never tell what is in store for us.”

— Harry S. Truman

175. “If I hadn’t been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house.”

— Harry S. Truman

176. “How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt?”

— Harry S. Truman

177. “You members of this Conference are to be the architects of the better world. In your hands rests our future.”

— Harry S. Truman

178. “The dictators of the world say that if you tell a lie often enough, why, people will believe it. Well, if you tell the truth often enough, they’ll believe it and go along with you.”

— Harry S. Truman

179. “The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.”

— Harry S. Truman

180. “It is ignorance that causes most mistakes.”

— Harry S. Truman

181. “I don’t feel qualified to be president either, but I’ve got the job.”

— Harry S. Truman

182. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

183. “Why, this fellow doesn’t know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday.”

— Harry S. Truman

184. “I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!”

— Harry S. Truman

185. “France is France and a grand place for Frenchman.”

— Harry S. Truman

186. “But Quantrill and his men were no more bandits than the men on the other side. I’ve been to reunions of Quantrill’s men two or three times. All they were trying to do was protect the property on the Missouri side of the line...”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

188. “Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.”

— Harry S. Truman

189. “Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.”

— Harry S. Truman

190. “There are always a lot of people so afraid of rocking the boat that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way.”

— Harry S. Truman

191. “The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him his is not.”

— Harry S. Truman

192. “This is a Christian nation.”

— Harry S. Truman

193. “Andrew Johnson wasn’t too bad, but he was overwhelmed by a hostile Congress.”

— Harry S. Truman

194. “Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.”

— Harry S. Truman

195. “For reasons of national security and out of consideration for some people still alive I have omitted certain material. Some of this material cannot be made available for many years, perhaps for many generations.”

— Harry S. Truman

196. “Poor Ike. He’ll say do this and do that and nothing at all will happen.”

— Harry S. Truman

197. “I’ve had a few setbacks in my life, but I never gave up.”

— Harry S. Truman

198. “Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.”

— Harry S. Truman

199. “We must face the fact that peace must be built on power, as well as upon good will and good deeds.”

— Harry S. Truman

200. “The most peaceful thing in the world is plowing a field. Chances are you’ll do your best thinking that way. And that’s why I’ve always thought and said, farmers are the smartest people in the world, they don’t go for high hats and they can spot a phony a mile off.”

— Harry S. Truman