Harry Truman: Trending quotes (page 3)

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“The Republicans believe in the minimum wage -- the more the minimum, the better.”

Harry Truman at Akron (11 October 1948), Good Old Harry
Context: The title of this book is Our New National Labor Policy, the Taft-Hartley Act and the Next Steps. Get that: "The Next Steps" … They're going even further! … The Republicans favor a minimum wage — the smaller the minimum the better.
Context: Your old friend Congressman Hartley of the Taft Hartley team … has written a book … The title of this book is Our New National Labor Policy, the Taft-Hartley Act and the Next Steps. Get that: "The Next Steps" … They're going even further! … The Republicans favor a minimum wage — the smaller the minimum the better.
Context: Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing. They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage--the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them.... They think American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it. − Harry S. Truman, October 13, 1948, St. Paul, Minnesota, Radio Broadcast.

“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.”

Interview http://books.google.com/books?id=r03gAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+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%22&pg=PA104#v=onepage with Margaret Truman, sitting in for host Edward R. Murrow, on Person to Person, CBS Television ( 27 May 1955 http://www.tv.com/shows/person-to-person/may-27-1955-1040725/)

“My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth there's hardly any difference.”

As quoted in Esquire, Vol. 76 (1971), also in Truman's Crises : A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman (1980) by Harold Foote Gosnell, p. 9; sometimes paraphrased: Being a politician is like being a piano player in a whorehouse.

“If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

Despite being quoted as a remark of Truman by both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, this apparently originates from a line in the portrayal of Truman in the play Give ‘Em Hell, Harry (1975) by Samuel Gallu : "You want a friend in life, get a dog!" This was later paraphrased by Maureen Dowd (10 March 1989): "If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog." But prior to Gallu's play their is no actual indication Truman ever said this, according to investigations by David Rothman In "Google Book Search, Harry S. Truman and the get-a-dog quote: Presidential library unable to confirm it" (28 June 2008) http://www.teleread.com/books/google-book-search-harry-s-truman-and-the-get-a-dog-quote-presidential-library-unable-to-confirm-it/
Misattributed

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

Special Message to the Congress: The President's First Economic Report (1947)
Source: https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/4/special-message-congress-presidents-first-economic-report

“Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.”

Lecture at Columbia University (28 April 1959)

“Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.”

Variant: Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.