WIST Quotations

Truman, Harry S -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:12:15 +0000

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

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
(Attributed)

Widely quoted in respectable biographies of Truman, but unsourced. Sometimes paraphrased: "Being a politician is like being a piano player in a whorehouse."

Truman, Harry S -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Maturity is knowing that just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean he’s a horse’s ass.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
(Attributed)

Truman, Harry S -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:40:04 +0000

Truman’s desk sign

The buck stops here.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
(Misattributed)

Not a quote from Truman, but popularized by him through a sign he kept on his White House desk, displaying the message It had been sent to him from the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma in late 1945. On the reverse side it reads, "I'm from Missouri." Truman occasionally referenced the sign and phrase in speeches.

The phrase -- which itself refers to "passing the buck," or handing responsibility off to another -- predates Truman's administration, and may have been coined by Brigadier General A. B. Warfield in 1939 or earlier.

More discussion about this quotation and its origin:

Truman, Harry S -- (Spurious)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
(Spurious)

There is nothing contemporary to Truman indicating this is a valid quotation of his. The earliest instance of crediting Truman seems to be by Hugh Sidey in Time (7 Nov 1988).

A variant of this quote was also attributed to Ronald Reagan, apparently due to a plaque he kept in his office:

There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.

More discussion of the quote and its actual origins going back to 1863: A Man May Do an Immense Deal of Good, If He Does Not Care Who Gets the Credit – Quote Investigator. See also Montague.

Truman, Harry S -- Memoirs: Year of Decisions, Preface (1955)

Dave — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:46:07 +0000

To be President of the United States is to be lonely, very lonely at times of great decisions.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Memoirs: Year of Decisions, Preface (1955)

Truman, Harry S -- Memoirs: Years of Trial and Hope, Opening Words (1956)

Dave — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:44:21 +0000

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. The fantastically crowded nine months of 1945 taught me that a President either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt I could let up for a single moment.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Memoirs: Years of Trial and Hope, Opening Words (1956)

Truman, Harry S -- Mr. Citizen (1960)

Dave — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 19:42:45 +0000

We have gone a long way toward civilization and religious tolerance, and we have a good example in this country. Here the many Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church do not seek to destroy one another in physical violence just because they do not interpret every verse of the Bible in exactly the same way. Here we now have the freedom of all religions, and I hope that never again will we have a repetition of religious bigotry, as we have had in certain periods of our own history. There is no room for that kind of foolishness here.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Mr. Citizen (1960)

Truman, Harry S -- Mr. Citizen (1960)

Dave — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:38:56 +0000

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 can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Mr. Citizen (1960)

Truman, Harry S -- Time, “The Presidency: The Answer Man” (28 Apr. 1952)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I had to do it, and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in Tombstone, Ariz.: “Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.”

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Time, “The Presidency: The Answer Man” (28 Apr. 1952)

Speaking in Winslow, AZ (15 Jun 1948), Truman said, "You know, the greatest epitaph in the country is here in Arizona. It’s 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."

Truman, Harry S -- Address, Americans for Democratic Action Convention (17 May 1952)

Dave — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:35:22 +0000

I’ve seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the Fair Deal, and says he really doesn’t believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don’t want a phony Democrat. If it’s a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don’t want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Address, Americans for Democratic Action Convention (17 May 1952)

Full text.

Truman, Harry S -- Comment (Summer 1952)

Dave — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:02:22 +0000

He’ll sit right here and he’ll say, “Do this! Do that!” And nothing will happen. Poor Ike — it won’t be a bit like the army. He’ll find it very frustrating.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Comment (Summer 1952)

On presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower.

Truman, Harry S -- Diary (1947-07-21)

Dave — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:01:19 +0000

Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, or Baptist he goes haywire. I’ve found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Diary (1947-07-21)

Full text.

Truman, Harry S -- Diary (1948-07-16)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:46:16 +0000

I’m going to make a common-sense, intellectually honest campaign. It will be a novelty and it will win.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Diary (1948-07-16)

Quoted in W. Hillman, Mr. President, Part III, ch. 2 (1952)

Truman, Harry S -- Diary (1952-12-06)

Dave — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:21:17 +0000

To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches — not I.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Diary (1952-12-06)

On criticism from the "sabotage press." Full text.

Truman, Harry S -- In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974)

Dave — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:00:27 +0000

I fired him because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. That’s the answer to that. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974)

On removing General Douglas MacArthur from command on April 11, 1951.

Truman, Harry S -- In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974)

Dave — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:28:00 +0000

The only thing I learned out of the whole MacArthur deal is that when you feel there’s something you have to do and you know in your gut you have to do it, the sooner you get it over with, the better off everybody is.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (1974)

Truman, Harry S -- In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, ch. 15 (1973)

Dave — Tue, 31 May 2016 14:05:56 +0000

You see the thing you have to remember. 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, and you’ve got to keep yourself separate from that in your mind. If you can’t keep the two separate, yourself and the Presidency, you’re in all kinds of trouble.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
In Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, ch. 15 (1973)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS (27 May 1955)

Dave — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:25:11 +0000

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 (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS (27 May 1955)

Truman, Harry S -- Lecture at Columbia University (28 April 1959)

Dave — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:07:42 +0000

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Lecture at Columbia University (28 April 1959)

Truman, Harry S -- Lecture, Columbia University (28 Apr 1959)

Dave — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:02:10 +0000

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.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Lecture, Columbia University (28 Apr 1959)

Truman, Harry S -- Letter to Mary Jane Truman (14 Nov 1947)

Dave — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:37:13 +0000

The people can never understand why the President does not use his powers to make them behave. 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.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Letter to Mary Jane Truman (14 Nov 1947)

Truman, Harry S -- Message to the House of Representatives, veto of McCarran Act (22-Sep-1950)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

To permit freedom of expression is primarily for the benefit of the majority, because it protects criticism, and criticism leads to progress.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Message to the House of Representatives, veto of McCarran Act (22-Sep-1950)

Truman, Harry S -- Remark to foreign dignitaries

Dave — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:47:10 +0000

I am the President of the most powerful nation in the world. I take orders from nobody, except photographers.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Remark to foreign dignitaries

In David Binder, "George Tames, Photographer, Dies at 75," New York Times (24 Feb 1994)

Truman, Harry S -- Remark to reporters (13 Apr 1945)

Dave — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:50:35 +0000

Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me. I’ve got the most terribly responsible job a man ever had.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Remark to reporters (13 Apr 1945)

On having become president the previous day, upon Franklin Roosevelt's death.

Truman, Harry S -- Special Message to Congress on the Internal Security of the United States (8 Aug 1950)

Dave — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:24:39 +0000

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 (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Special Message to Congress on the Internal Security of the United States (8 Aug 1950)

Full text.

Truman, Harry S -- Speech (1952-10-10), Syracuse, New York

Dave — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 04:23:31 +0000

Taft explained that the great issue in this campaign is “creeping socialism.” Now that is the patented trademark of the special interest lobbies. Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last twenty years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called Social Security. Socialism is what they called farm prices supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech (1952-10-10), Syracuse, New York
(Source)

Referring to Sen. Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio).

Audio recording (the quotation is at 6:35 into the speech).

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Annapolis (24 May 1952)

Dave — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 18:35:16 +0000

Do you know what makes a leader? It’s the man or woman who can persuade people to do what they ought to do — and which they sometimes don’t do — without being persuaded. They must also have the ability to persuade people to do what they do not want to do and like it.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Annapolis (24 May 1952)
(Source)

Truman used this phrase multiple times in his speech and writing:

Common paraphrase: "You know what makes leadership? It is the ability to get men to do what they don't want to do and like it."
"I could see that history had some extremely valuable lessons to teach. I learned from it that a leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it." -- Memoirs, Book 1 (1955)]
"My definition of a leader in a free country is a man who can persuade people to do what they don't want to do, or do what they're too lazy to do, and like it." -- Where the Buck Stops (1990) [ed. M. Truman]

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Butte, Montana (1950-05-12)

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:28:31 +0000

All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about “creeping socialism.” I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with — and almost surely we would have socialism in this country, real socialism, not the kind they define.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Butte, Montana (1950-05-12)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Joint Session of the US Congress (12 Mar 1947)

Dave — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:10:59 +0000

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Joint Session of the US Congress (12 Mar 1947)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, National Archives (1952-12-15)

Dave — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 14:23:16 +0000

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 S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, National Archives (1952-12-15)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, National Archives (1952-12-15)

Dave — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 05:30:22 +0000

The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence can live only as long as they are enshrined in our hearts and minds. If they are not so enshrined, they would be no better than mummies in their glass cases, and they could in time become idols whose worship would be a grim mockery of the true faith. Only as these documents are reflected in the thoughts and acts of Americans can they remain symbols of a power that can move the world.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, National Archives (1952-12-15)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, National Plowing Match, Dexter, Iowa (18 Sep 1948)

Dave — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 16:41:42 +0000

The Wall Street reactionaries are not satisfied with being rich. They want to increase their power and privileges, regardless of what happens to the other fellow. They are gluttons of privilege.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, National Plowing Match, Dexter, Iowa (18 Sep 1948)
(Source)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Press and Union Club, San Francisco (25 Oct 1956)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:59:34 +0000

The legislative job of the President is especially important to the people who have no special representatives to plead their cause before Congress — and that includes the great majority. The President is the only lobbyist that 150 million Americans have. The other 20 million are able to employ people to represent them — and that’s all right, it’s the exercise of the right of petition — but someone has to look after the interests of the 150 million that are left.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Press and Union Club, San Francisco (25 Oct 1956)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Reciprocity Club, Washington (11 Apr 1958)

Dave — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:48:17 +0000

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 who’s been dead 10 or 15 years.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Reciprocity Club, Washington (11 Apr 1958)

See Thomas Reed.

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, St Paul (3 Nov 1949)

Dave — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:48:51 +0000

The reactionaries hold that government policies should be designed for the special benefit of small groups of people who occupy positions of wealth and influence. Their theory seems to be that if these groups are prosperous, they will pass along some of their prosperity to the rest of us. This can be described as the “trickle down theory.”

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, St Paul (3 Nov 1949)

Truman, Harry S -- Speech, Washington (22 Feb 1958)

Dave — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:13:13 +0000

Whenever the press quits abusing me I know I’m in the wrong pew. I don’t mind it because when they throw bricks at me — I’m a pretty good shot myself and I usually throw ’em back at ’em.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, Washington (22 Feb 1958)

The speech was held at a dinner in his honor. Text quoted in the New York Times (23 Feb 1958)

Truman, Harry S -- State of the Union Message (5 Jan 1949)

Dave — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:32:20 +0000

Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.

Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
State of the Union Message (5 Jan 1949)