Quotes from Harry S. Truman

The "C" students run the world.

I studied the lives of great men and famous women; and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.

The president is the representative of the whole nation and he's the only lobbyist that all the one hundred and sixty million people in this country have.

Within the first few months I discovered that being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.

Harricum! Harricum! Give 'em hell, Harricum!

The buck stops here.

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here.

We are trying to prevent a third world war.

If we let Korea down, the Soviet[s] will keep right on going and swallow up one [place] after another.

But all of us-at home, at war, wherever we may be-are within the reach of God's love and power. We all can pray. We all should pray. We should ask the fulfillment of God's will.

If wars in the future are to be prevented the nations must be united in their determination to keep the peace under law.

But we are only termites on a planet and maybe when we bore too deeply into the planet there'll be a reckoning. Who knows?

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there's hardly a difference.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I'm very proud that I'm smart enough to get to the point

To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.

No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs.

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.

About the meanest thing you can say about a man is that he means well.

There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for the crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have.

Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.

Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.

I don't believe in anti-anything. A man has to have a program; you have to be for something. Otherwise, you will never get anywhere.