“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.”

— Harry Truman

Address at the National Archives dedicating a shrine for the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights (15 December 1952) https://trumanlibrary.org/calendar/viewpapers.php?pid=2102 Context: 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. All freedom-loving nations, not the United States alone, are facing a stern challenge from the Communist tyranny. In the circumstances, alarm is justified. The man who isn't alarmed simply doesn't understand the situation — or he is crazy. But alarm is one thing, and hysteria is another. Hysteria impels people to destroy the very thing they are struggling to preserve. Invasion and conquest by Communist armies would be a horror beyond our capacity to imagine. But invasion and conquest by Communist ideas of right and wrong would be just as bad. For us to embrace the methods and morals of communism in order to defeat Communist aggression would be a moral disaster worse than any physical catastrophe. If that should come to pass, then the Constitution and the Declaration would be utterly dead and what we are doing today would be the gloomiest burial in the history of the world.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murder…" by Harry Truman?

Harry Truman119

American politician, 33rd president of the United States (i… 1884–1972

Related quotes

“I am inclined to follow the course suggested by a friend of mine who says that he has always followed the rule never to murder a man who is committing suicide, and clearly this misdirected gentleman is committing suicide slowly but sureley.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Letter to Bernard Baruch (19 August 1916), PWW 38:51
1910s
Variant: Never attempt to murder a man who is committing suicide.

“Committing suicide so as not to be murdered is the worst reason I've ever heard of to die.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

“In my forty-five years of forming men’s groups, I have never heard of a man who was actively involved in a men’s group being hospitalized for depression, or commit suicide.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 287

“Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Bernard Baruch in response to a question by Igor Cassini as to how he handled the seating arrangements at his dinner parties, as quoted in Shake Well Before Using: A New Collection of Impressions and Anecdotes Mostly Humorous (1948) by Bennett Cerf, p. 249; the full response was "I never bother about that. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." This anecdote is also quoted online at Chiasmus.com http://www.chiasmus.com/archive/msg00241.html. It has also become part of a larger expression, which has been commonly attributed to Dr. Seuss, even in print, but without citation of a specific work: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Misattributed Variant: Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

“Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.”

Bernard Baruch (1870–1965) American businessman

Often quoted response to Igor Cassini, a popular society columnist for the New York Journal American, when asked how he handled the seating arrangements for all those who attended his dinner parties, as quoted in Shake Well Before Using: A New Collection of Impressions and Anecdotes Mostly Humorous (1948) by Bennett Cerf, p. 249; the full response was "I never bother about that. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." This anecdote is also Chiasmus and has also become part of a larger expression, which has been commonly attributed to Dr. Seuss, even in print, but without citation of a specific work : "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."