Harry Truman: Trending quotes (page 5)

“No man can get rich in politics unless he's a crook.”

Harry Truman

Variant: Similarly on pg. 136: "About this getting rich in politics. Like I said, you just can't do it unless you're a crook." And earlier: "An honest public servant can't become rich in politics." - Truman's diary, 24 April 1954.
Source: Harry S Truman, quoted in Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman by Merle Miller, 1973-1974 SBN 425-02664-7 LOC 73-87198, Berkeley Medallion Edition, October, 1974, Chapter 10. "The Only Defeat − and Then Victory", pg. 134.

“It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.
Before 1939, it was the accepted belief of scientists that it was theoretically possible to release atomic energy. But no one knew any practical method of doing it. By 1942, however, we knew that the Germans were working feverishly to find a way to add atomic energy to the other engines of war with which they hoped to enslave the world. But they failed. We may be grateful to Providence that the Germans got the V-1's and V-2's late and in limited quantities and even more grateful that they did not get the atomic bomb at all.”

Harry Truman

Announcing the Bombing of Hiroshima (1945)

War , World , Hope , Way

“No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.”

Harry Truman

Speech to a joint session of the US Congress (12 March 1947), outlining what became known as The Truman Doctrine

Democracy , Perfection

“Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me. I've got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.”

Harry Truman

Comment to reporters on having become president the day before, after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, (13 April 1945) as quoted in Conflict and Crisis : The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948 by Robert J. Donovan, p. 17; also quoted in "Thoughts Of A President, 1945" at Eyewitness to History http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/tru.htm, and TIME magazine (12 April1968) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838136-9,00.html

Star , Boy

“I believe that we have learned the importance of maintaining military strength as a means of preventing war. We have found that a sound military system is necessary in time of peace if we are to remain at peace. Aggressors in the past, relying on our apparent lack of military force, have unwisely precipitated war. Although they have been led to destruction by their misconception of our strength, we have paid a terrible price for our unpreparedness.”

Harry Truman

Special Message to the Congress on the Threat to the Freedom of Europe (1948)

War , Peace , Learning , Time

“In bitter despair, some people have come to believe that wars are inevitable. With tragic fatalism, they insist that wars have always been, of necessity, and of necessity wars always will be. To such defeatism, men and women of good will must not and can not yield. The outlook for humanity is not so hopeless.”

Harry Truman

Address to Congress (1945)

Women , Men , War , People

“Tell him to go to hell; I'm for Jimmy Byrnes.”

Harry Truman

Upon hearing that Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted him to be his vice presidential running mate (21 July 1944), as quoted in Choosing Truman : The Democratic Convention of 1944 (1994); also quoted in "Harry S. Truman : America's last great leader?" in USA Today magazine (January 1995) by the Society for the Advancement of Education http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2596_v123/ai_16399945

Hell

“My forebears were Confederates… but my very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten.”

Harry Truman

As quoted in Harry S. Truman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman#CITEREFTruman1973 (1973), by Margaret Truman, New York: William Morrow, p. 429

Learning

“When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency.”

Harry Truman

As quoted in Plain Speaking : An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974) by Merle Miller, p. 228

“There are 14 or 15 million Americans who have the resources to have representatives in Washington to protect their interests, and that the interests of the great mass of the other people — the 150 or 160 million — is the responsibility of the president of the United States, and I propose to fulfill it.”

Harry Truman

As quoted by John F. Kennedy in an address in Atlantic City at the Convention of the United Auto Workers (8 May 1962) As reported in the Ready Reference: John F. Kennedy Quotations of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx

People

“It is my deep conviction that we have reached a turning point in our country’s efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all our citizens. Recent events in the United States and abroad have made us realize that it is more important today than ever before to insure that all Americans enjoy these rights. When I say all Americans, I mean all Americans.”

Harry Truman

Speech to the NAACP http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmakers/newsmakers/gardner.html (29 June 1947).

Effort , Freedom , Country

“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!”

Harry Truman

Third Radner Lecture, Columbia University, New York City (29 April 1959), as published in Truman Speaks : Lectures And Discussions Held At Columbia University On April 27, 28, And 29, 1959 (1960), p. 111

Thinking , Time , Housing

“No nation on this globe should be more internationally minded than America because it was built by all nations.”

Harry Truman

Harry Truman at Chicago, 17 March 1945, as recorded in Good Old Harry

“I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them … that's all the powers of the President amount to.”

Harry Truman

Quoted by Richard Neustadt in Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership http://books.google.com/books?id=-rxEAAAAIAAJ&q="I+sit+here+all+day+trying+to+persuade+people+to+do+the+things+they+ought+to+have+sense+enough+to+do+without+my+persuading+them"+"that's+all+the+powers+of+the+President+amount+to" (1964)

People , Sense

“My favorite animal is the mule. He has more sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating — and when to stop working.”

Harry Truman

Mr. Citizen, Harry Truman (1960)

Sense , Animals , Horse

“The people can never understand why the President does not use his powers to make them behave. Well 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.”

Harry Truman

Letter to Mary Jane Truman (14 November 1947)

People , Understanding , Kiss , Time

“Nothing but a damn bunch of bullshit!”

Harry Truman

On General Douglas MacArthur's "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech, as quoted in The Fifties (1993) by David Halberstam

“One of the difficulties with all our institutions is the fact that we've emphasized the reward instead of the service.”

Harry Truman

Letter http://books.google.com/books?id=DVVffTwVVy4C&q=%22One+of+the+difficulties+with+all+our+institutions+is+the+fact+that+we've+emphasized+the+reward+instead+of+the+service%22&pg=PA166#v=onepage to Harold E. Moore (27 September 1949)

“Reported in Truman Speaks (1960), p. 59.”

Harry Truman

“I was the only calm one in the house. You see I’ve been shot at by experts.”

Harry Truman

Comment on his World War I experience after an assassination attempt on (1 November 1950) as quoted in Bess W. Truman (1986) by Margaret Truman

Housing