Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) was an American Democratic-party political leader who served as the 33rd president 1945–53. He oversaw the end of World War II, including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the new challenges of the Cold War.
Born in Lamar, Missouri, Truman served in the U.S. Army during World War I and served as a U.S. senator from 1934 until 1945. Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Truman as vice president in 1944. In April 1945, with the imminent end of World War II, he became president when Roosevelt died.
After World War II, Truman led America’s evolution from wartime to peacetime economy. He introduced the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, sanctioned the Berlin airlift, established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO,) and authorized U.S. military participation in the Korean War.
Truman retired to private life in 1952 and published two volumes of memoirs—Year of Decisions (1955) and Years of Trial and Hope (1956.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Harry S. Truman
How do you live a long life? “Take a two-mile walk every morning before breakfast.”
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Age
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 S. Truman
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Tyranny
Study men, not historians.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: History
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
—Harry S. Truman
I come to the office each morning and stay for long hours doing what has to be done to the best of my ability. And when you’ve done the best you can, you can’t do any better. So when I go to sleep I turn everything over to the Lord and forget it.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Contentment, Happiness
Politics is a fascinating game, because politics is government. It is the art of government.
—Harry S. Truman
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Pessimism, Opportunities, Optimism
We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Communication
In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves … self-discipline with all of them came first.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Live, Discipline, Victory, Great
I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Leadership, Leaders, Inspiration
Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Experience
I always considered statesmen to be more expendable than soldiers.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Politicians, Politics, Soldiers
It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Economy, Jobs, Depression, Unemployment
The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: History, One liners
There has been a lot of talk lately about the burdens of the Presidency. Decisions that the President has to make often affect the lives of tens of millions of people around the world, but that does not mean that they should take longer to make. Some men can make decisions and some cannot. Some men fret and delay under criticism. I used to have a saying that applies here, and I note that some people have picked it up, If you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
—Harry S. Truman
The buck stops here.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Money
If that’s art, I’m a Hottentot!
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Art, Artists, Arts
You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Americans
You know, the greatest epitaph in the country is here in Arizona. Its in Tombstone, Ariz. , and this epitaph says, Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest. I think that is the greatest epitaph a man could have. Whenever a man does the best he can, then that is all he can do; and that is what your President has been trying to do for the last 3 years for this country.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Effort
People are very much wrought up about the Communist bugaboo.
—Harry S. Truman
I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Truth
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.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Advice, Children
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 S. Truman
Topics: Presidency
I’m proud that I’m a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician whose been dead 10 or 15 years.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Politics, Politicians
My favorite animal is the mule. He has a lot more horse sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating. And he knows when to stop working.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Animals
If you can’t convince ’em, confuse ’em.
—Harry S. Truman
I said that an expert was a fella who was afraid to learn anything new because then he wouldn’t be an expert anymore.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Knowledge
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were political enemies, but they became fast friends. And when they passed away on the same day, the last words of one of them was, The country is safe. Jefferson still lives. And the last words of the other was, John Adams will see that things go forward.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Friendship
Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
—Harry S. Truman
Topics: Government
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