Quotes By Harry S. Truman

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

I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it - not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

It's plain hokum. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em. It's an old political trick. But this time it won't work.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

The buck stops here!

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.

A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.

A President cannot always be popular.

The atom bomb was no "great decision." It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.

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!

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

It sure is hell to be president.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

Well, I wouldn't say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgements about what is going on.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.

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

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.

I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

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.

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.

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

The President is always abused. If he isn't, he isn't doing anything.