Top 300 Harry S. Truman Quotes (2023 Update)
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201. “Dictatorship, by whatever name, is founded on the doctrine that the individual amounts to nothing; that the State is the only one that counts; and that men and women and children were put on earth solely for the purpose of serving the state.”

— Harry S. Truman

202. “When the Liberals said they were going to create a million new jobs, I didn’t think they were all going to be tax collectors. If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

204. “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

205. “I like riding a bicycle built for two – by myself.”

— Harry S. Truman

206. “I got very well acquainted with Joe Stalin, and I like old Joe! He is a decent fellow. But Joe is a prisoner of the Politburo.”

— Harry S. Truman

207. “We should resolve now that the health of this nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all it’s citizens deserves the help of all the nation.”

— Harry S. Truman

208. “I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have faith in it now.”

— Harry S. Truman

209. “Canada is a broad land – broad in mind, broad in spirit, and broad in physical expanse.”

— Harry S. Truman

210. “The America to which these Swedish settlers came was a land that needed the hardy qualities they brought. It was not a land that was particularly softhearted towards newcomers, but everyone believed that each should have a fair chance regardless of his origin.”

— Harry S. Truman

211. “A leader has to lead otherwise he has no business in politics.”

— Harry S. Truman

212. “Never, never waste a minute on regret. It’s a waste of time.”

— Harry S. Truman

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

— Harry S. Truman

214. “No one who has not had the responsibility can really understand what it is like to be President, not even his closest aides or members of his immediate family. There is no end to the chain of responsibility that binds him, and he is never allowed to forget that he is President.”

— Harry S. Truman

215. “It’s not the hand that signs the laws that holds the destiny of America. It’s the hand that casts the ballot.”

— Harry S. Truman

216. “There is a lure in power. It can get into a man’s blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do.”

— Harry S. Truman

217. “I do not believe in shooting anything that cannot shoot back.”

— Harry S. Truman

218. “Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty.”

— Harry S. Truman

219. “Whenever the press quits abusing me, I know I’m in the wrong pew.”

— Harry S. Truman

220. “The only thing you have to worry about is bad luck. I never had bad luck.”

— Harry S. Truman

221. “Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.”

— Harry S. Truman

222. “My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.”

— Harry S. Truman

223. “The stress stops here.”

— Harry S. Truman

224. “I would rather have peace in the world than be President.”

— Harry S. Truman

225. “When contemplating General Eisenhower winning the Presidential election, Truman said, Hell sit here, and hell say, Do this! Do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ikeit wont be a bit like the Army. Hell find it very frustrating.”

— Harry S. Truman

226. “It is through generous giving, that we affirm before the world, our nation’s faith in the inalienable right of every man, to a life of freedom, justice and security.”

— Harry S. Truman

227. “If you think somebody is telling a big lie about you, the only way to answer is with the whole truth.”

— Harry S. Truman

228. “It sure is hell to be president.”

— Harry S. Truman

229. “Here we now have the freedom of all religions, and I hope that never again will we have a repetition of religious bigotry, as we have had in certain periods of our own history. There is no room for that kind of foolishness here.”

— Harry S. Truman

230. “This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.”

— Harry S. Truman

231. “The United States, which would live on Christian principles with all of the peoples of the world, cannot omit a fair deal for its own Indian citizens.”

— Harry S. Truman

232. “He “wasn’t used to being criticized, and he never did get it through his head that’s what politics is all about. He was used to getting his ass kissed.””

— Harry S. Truman

233. “John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were political enemies, but they became fast friends. And when they passed away on the same day, the last words of one of them was, The country is safe. Jefferson still lives. And the last words of the other was, John Adams will see that things go forward.”

— Harry S. Truman

234. “All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”

— Harry S. Truman

235. “When a High Explosive shell bursts in fifteen feet and does you no damage, you can bet your sweet life you bear a charmed life and no mistake.”

— Harry S. Truman

236. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

237. “The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.”

— Harry S. Truman

238. “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he’d taken a poll in Egypt?”

— Harry S. Truman

239. “To reporters the day after his accession to the presidency, April 13, 1945: When they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.”

— Harry S. Truman

240. “I don’t believe in anti-anything. A man has to have a program; you have to be for something. Otherwise, you will never get anywhere.”

— Harry S. Truman

241. “You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I’m taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible.”

— Harry S. Truman

242. “This generation, raised on “Eyewitness News,” conditioned by the instant replay, and spared the illumination that comes from tedious historical study, tends to be even more ahistorical than most.”

— Harry S. Truman

243. “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.”

— Harry S. Truman

244. “The United States is not so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable that we can ignore what the world thinks of us or our record.”

— Harry S. Truman

245. “If I’d known how much packing I’d have to do, I’d have run again.”

— Harry S. Truman

246. “The world has experienced a revival of an old faith in the everlasting moral force of justice. At no time in history has there been a more important Conference, or a more necessary meeting, than this one in San Francisco, which you are opening today.”

— Harry S. Truman

247. “The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.”

— Harry S. Truman

248. “We must remember that the test of our religious principles lies not just in what we say, not only in our prayers, not even in living blameless lives – but in what we do for others.”

— Harry S. Truman

249. “A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.”

— Harry S. Truman

250. “If you tell Congress everything about the world situation, they get hysterical. If you tell them nothing, they go fishing.”

— Harry S. Truman