Harry Truman: Trending quotes (page 6)

“You know, the United States Government turns its Chief Executive out to grass. They're just allowed to starve... If I hadn't inherited some property that finally paid things through, I'd be on relief now.”

Harry Truman

Interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS Television (2 February 1958)

Grass

“People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo.”

Harry Truman

Letter to George H. Earle, former governor of Pennsylvania (received 28 February 1947); reported in The New York Times (3 April 1947), p. 17, quoting Earle.

People

“Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.”

Harry Truman

Statement to a group of four congress freshmen (2 July 1947), as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44

“I am not sure it can ever be used… I don't think we ought to use this thing unless we absolutely have to. It is a terrible thing to order the use of something that is so terribly destructive, destructive beyond anything we have ever had. You have got to understand that this isn’t a military weapon. It is used to wipe out women and children and unarmed people, and not for military uses. So we have got to treat this differently from rifles and cannon and ordinary things like that.”

Harry Truman

Regarding nuclear weapons, as quoted in Harry S. Truman: A Life https://books.google.com/books?id=7UXSMj3OF4oC&pg=PA344&lpg=PA344&dq=%22It+is+used+to+wipe+out+women+and+children+and+unarmed+people,+and+not+for+military+uses.+So+we+have+got+to+treat+this+differently+from+rifles+and+cannon+and+ordinary+things+like+that.%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=xoePU9q9JU&sig=Lxl_x7toU7Y3oD_zKKSZQ2zD29k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCgQ6AEwA2oVChMIw7D1wb6dxwIVSjI-Ch3ibAd2#v=onepage&q=%22It%20is%20used%20to%20wipe%20out%20women%20and%20children%20and%20unarmed%20people%2C%20and%20not%20for%20military%20uses.%20So%20we%20have%20got%20to%20treat%20this%20differently%20from%20rifles%20and%20cannon%20and%20ordinary%20things%20like%20that.%E2%80%9D&f=false, by Robert H. Ferrell, p. 344

Women , Children , People , Understanding

“The British, Chinese, and United States Governments have given the Japanese people adequate warning of what is in store for them. We have laid down the general terms on which they can surrender. Our warning went unheeded; our terms were rejected. Since then the Japanese have seen what our atomic bomb can do. They can foresee what it will do in the future.”

Harry Truman

Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)

People , Future

“It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.”

Harry Truman

Executive Order 9981 (1948)

Religion , Color , Change , Time

“I am not worried about the Communist Party taking over the Government of the United States, but I am against a person, whose loyalty is not to the Government of the United States, holding a Government job. They are entirely different things. I am not worried about this country ever going Communist. We have too much sense for that.”

Harry Truman

Responding to a question at his press conference (February 28, 1947); reported in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1947, p. 191

Sense , Personality , Loyalty , Country

“The Russians are like us, they look and act like us. They are fine people. They got along with our soldiers in Berlin very well. As far as I am concerned, they can have whatever they want just so they don't try to impose their system on others.”

Harry Truman

Statement to a group of four congress freshmen (2 July 1947), as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44

People

“Had ten minutes conversation with Henry Morgenthau about Jewish ship in Palistine. Told him I would talk to Gen[eral] Marshall about it. He'd no business, whatever to call me. The Jews have no sense of proportion nor do they have any judgement on world affairs. Henry brought a thousand Jews to New York on a supposedly temporary basis and they stayed. When the country went backward — and Republican in the election of 1946, this incident loomed large on the DP [Displaced Person] program. 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 DP 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. Look at the Congress[ional] attitude on DP — and they all come from DPs.”

Harry Truman

Personal diary 6:00 P. M. Monday (21 July 1947) https://www.trumanlibrary.org/diary/page21.htm

World , Dogs , Business , Sense

“All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government are authorized and directed to cooperate with the Committee in its work, and to furnish the Committee such information or the services of such persons as the Committee may require in the performance of its duties.”

Harry Truman

Executive Order 9981 (1948)

Personality

“I have read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an eight ulcer man on a four ulcer job … Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes and perhaps a supporter below.”

Harry Truman

Letter to critic Paul Hume, as quoted in TIME magazine (18 December 1950)

Hope , Support , Reading

“The Russians are liars – you can't trust them. At Potsdam they agreed to everything and broke their word. It's too bad the second world power is like this, but that's the way it is, and we must keep our strength.”

Harry Truman

Statement to Richard Nixon and his wife Pat in 1969, as quoted in The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, p. 44

World , Way

“I sincerely wish that every member of Congress could visit the displaced person's camp in Germany and Austria and see just what is happening to 500,000 human beings through no fault of their own.”

Harry Truman

Letter to Walter F. George (October 1946); as quoted in Great Jewish Quotations (1996) by Alfred J. Kolatch, p. 463

Personality , Sincerity

“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.”

Harry Truman

As quoted in TIME magazine (10 February 1958)

Music , Star

“Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it — don't forget that! We will do that because they are wrong and we are right, and I will prove it to you in just a few minutes.”

Harry Truman

Address to the Democratic National Convention (15 July 1948) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/33_truman/psources/ps_convention48.html; this has often been paraphrased as: "They are wrong and we are right and I'm going to prove it to you!"

Forgetting

“The buck stops here!”

Harry Truman

This saying, also popularized by Truman, was on a sign on his desk https://www.trumanlibrary.org/buckstop.htm, but did not originate with him. According to the Truman Presidential Library, it was sent to him nearly two months after the Hiroshima atomic bombing.
Misattributed

“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.”

Harry Truman

Get that: "The Next Steps" … They're going even further! … The Republicans favor a minimum wage — the smaller the minimum the better.
Harry Truman at Akron (11 October 1948), Good Old Harry

Books

“There isn’t any difference between the totalitarian Russian Government and the Hitler government and the Franco government in Spain. They are all alike. They are police state governments.”

Harry Truman

Source: News Conference at Key West, March 30, 1950

“People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo... the country is perfectly safe so far as Communism is concerned—we have too many sane people.”

Harry Truman

Letter to George H. Earle, former governor of Pennsylvania (received 28 February 1947); reported in The New York Times (3 April 1947), p. 17, quoting Earle.
Source: [McCullough, David G., Truman, 2003, Simon & Schuster, 978-0-7432-6029-9, 655, 869432463]

Country , People , Communication