Quotes from Harry S. Truman

Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima. . . . The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

We must face the fact that peace must be built on power, as well as upon good will and good deeds.

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.

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 buck stops here.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.