Harry S. Truman
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.Collection: Years
In the long view, no nation is any healthier than its children.Collection: Children
Whenever a man does the best he can, then that is all he can do.Collection: Men
It will be just as easy for nations to get along in a republic of the world as it is for you to get along in the republic of the United States. Now, if Kansas and Colorado have a quarrel over a watershed they don't call out the national guard in each state and go to war over it. They bring suit in the Supreme Court and abide by its decision. There isn't a reason in the world why we can't do that internationally.Collection: War
I fear we are too much concerned with material things to remember that our real strength lies in spiritual values.Collection: Spiritual
We have to get tough with the Russians. They don't know how to behave. They are like bulls in a china shop. They are only 25 years old. We are over 100 and the British are centuries older. We have got to teach them how to behave.Collection: War
No nation on this globe should be more internationally minded than America because it was built by all nations.Collection: America
I don't give a damn about "The Missouri Waltz" but I can't say it out loud because it's the song of Missouri. It's as bad as "The Star-Spangled Banner" so far as music is concerned.Collection: Song
People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo.Collection: People
There are always a lot of people so afraid of rocking the boat that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way.Collection: Inspirational
Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.Collection: Men
Of course I believe in free enterprise but in my system of free enterprise, the democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, never will be, room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Taken
I sincerely regret the unfortunate choice of language which I used in my letter of August 29 to Congressman McDonough concerning the Marine Corps.Collection: Regret
For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy making arm of the government.Collection: Government
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.Collection: Children
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.Collection: Leadership
If you don't have your own goals, you'll be doomed to work toward someone else's.Collection: Goal
Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it.Collection: Party
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.Collection: Jobs
Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.Collection: Perfect
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. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. 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: Suicide
Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.Collection: Greed
The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as Displaced Persons as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.Collection: Dog
Democracy alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoples of the world into triumphant action, not only against their human oppressors, but also against their ancient enemies-hunger, misery, and despair.Collection: Enemy
It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.Collection: Honesty
If that's art, I'm a Hottentot!Collection: Art
They said we were soft, that we would not fight, that we could not win. We are not a warlike nation. We do not go to war for gain or for territory; we go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. I think I told every one of them that I would rather have that medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, than to be President of the United States.Collection: War
A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.Collection: Character
The atomic bomb is too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world.Collection: Bombs
The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want.Collection: War
Peace is precious to us. It is the way of life we strive for with all the strength and wisdom we possess. But more precious than peace are freedom and justice. We will fight, if fight we must, to keep our freedom and to prevent justice from being destroyed.Collection: Life
It is time that all Americans realized that the place of labor is side by side with the businessman and with the farmer, and not one-degree lower.Collection: Presidential
Most of the time most people know the right thing to do ...its the doing of it that gives them troubleCollection: People
One of the difficulties with all our institutions is the fact that we've emphasized the reward instead of the service.Collection: Rewards
The successful man has enthusiasm. Good work is never done in cold blood; heat is needed for forge anything. Every great achievement is the story of a flaming heart.Collection: Leadership
On the one hand, the Republicans are telling industrial workers that the high cost of food in the cities is due to this government's farm policy. On the other hand, the Republicans are telling the farmers that the high cost of manufactured goods on the farm is due to this government's labor policy. That's plain hokum. It's an old political trick: "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em." But this time it won't work.Collection: Government
In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak.Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores.Collection: Strong
Mama and Papa are more to blame (for delinquency) than the kids; parents should stay home and raise their children and spend less time in taverns.Collection: Children
In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers. Real security will be found only in law and in justice.Collection: Real
France is France and a grand place for Frenchman.Collection: France
In most of my campaigns, I find it is best not to mention my opponent by name because, by doing so, it just gives him a chance to get into the headlines.Collection: Names
I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in a cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona: "Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest."Collection: Jobs
Being President is a little bit like riding a tiger. You have to keep riding, or else you will be swallowed up by it!Collection: President
Being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or he is swallowed.Collection: Athlete
The way in which you endure that which you must endure is more important than the crisis itself.Collection: Important
It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace.Collection: Giving
To me party platforms are contracts with the people.Collection: Party