Quotes from Margaret Truman

Mother considered a press conference on a par with a visit to a cage of cobras.

Courage is rarely reckless or foolish ... courage usually involves a highly realistic estimate of the odds that must be faced.

He took pride in belonging to the world's most exclusive club: the United States Senate.

It's only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home - it's only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love.

It's only when you grow up and step back from him–or leave him for your own home–it's only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it.

I love books. I really, really love them. There's something special about bringing people and books together

It was said in the First World War that the French fought for their country, the British fought for freedom of the seas, and the Americans fought for souvenirs.

The Congress ran off and left everything just as I expected they would do and now they are trying to blame me because they did nothing. I just don't believe people can be fooled that easily.

But they are not risks of our own making, and we cannot make the danger vanish by pretending that it does not exist. We must be prepared to meet that danger with sober self-restraint and calm and judicious action if we are to be successful in our leadership for peace.

Dad once defined leadership as the art of persuading people to do what they should have done in the first place. If they bullheadedly refuse to take this advice, there is not much the leader can do, in a free society.

George Elsey put it succinctly: "You can't sit around and wait for public opinion to tell you what to do. In the first place there isn't any public opinion. The public doesn't know anything about it; they haven't heard about it. The President must decide what he is going to do and do it, and attempt to educate the public to the reasons for his action.

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.

and what to do with Mr. Prima Donna, Brass Hat, Five Star MacArthur. He's worse than the Cabots and the Lodges - they at least talked with one another before they told God what to do. Mac tells God right off.

Dad was not enjoying himself very much either, as is evident from this comment to his mother and sister: "We had a nice time at the Fair if you can call it a nice time to be followed around by thirty newsmen and photographers everywhere and to be mobbed every time an appearance is made . . . I had to ride in an open car and give 'em a Cheshire Cat grin and almost freeze stiff but the onlookers seemed to enjoy it." From the fair Dad drove to Reelfoot Lake

The "play" that is the nation's capital never closes, high drama and low comedy, villains and heroes, all the stuff of compelling theatre. And in true theatrical spirit, the show must, and hopefully will, go on.

there are individuals who by virtue of their genes or upbringing or psychological set, or maybe all three, have a frighteningly enhanced capacity to be brainwashed.

Nothing at all, but I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I'd hate to get used to something I'm not ready for.

But he soon became more realistic about Montana. "It's such a beautiful climate up there. Only forty-seven below last winter. The wind sometimes blows sixty miles an hour straight from Alaska.

Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations," she went on, "are all too frequently those who by our own words and acts ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism: The right to criticize, The right to hold unpopular beliefs, The right to protest, The right to independent thought.