Harry S. Truman
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.Collection: Patriotism
Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in.Collection: Good
I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.Collection: Truth
A President cannot always be popular.Collection: Positive
If you can't convince them, confuse them.Collection: Communication
I would rather have peace in the world than be President.Collection: Peace
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.Collection: History
The reward of suffering is experience.Collection: Experience
There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.Collection: History
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.Collection: Fear
My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.Collection: Dad
I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.Collection: Truth
Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.Collection: Humor
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.Collection: Government
Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.Collection: Art
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.Collection: History
The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.Collection: Independence
You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.Collection: Politics
A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.Collection: Politics
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.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Politics
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.Collection: Amazing
The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.Collection: Learning
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.Collection: History
In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Best
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.Collection: Peace
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.Collection: Teacher
The atom bomb was no 'great decision.' It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness.Collection: Great
Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.Collection: Truth
When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.Collection: Government
A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.Collection: Government
In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.
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.
This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.
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.
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.
If I hadn't been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house.
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.
The President is always abused. If he isn't, he isn't doing anything.
It sure is hell to be president.
Study men, not historians.
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
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.
It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.
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.
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.
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.
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.