Quotes By Harry S. Truman

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought.

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.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

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

Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.

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

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

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

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.

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.

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.

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

Study men, not historians.

Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.

Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me.

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

The reward of suffering is experience.

The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.

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.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

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

You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don't believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.

A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.

The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's.

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