Quotes / Harry S. Truman

Truman: [upon being told of Franklin D. Roosevelt's death] Is there anything I can do for you?
Eleanor Roosevelt: Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.

"If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog." ^note  Despite what this would make you think, Truman had a number of friends from his time in the Senate, as well as people from Missouri like his longtime Best Friend and Press Secretary Charlie Ross, and ironically, was not ever considered much of a dog person; he gave away the one he was given as President.

—Harry S. Truman

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

—Harry S. Truman^note He may not have invented this, but he certainly popularized it.

"Give 'em Hell, Harry!"

—Democratic Party rallying cry during the 1948 election. ^note This was allegedly an approving heckle from an audience member when he was campaigning in Bremerton, Washington, and ascended to campaign slogan. A plaque on the side of a building now commemorates the spot where it was first said, and the unknown heckler.

"To err is Truman."

—Republican Party joke/slogan

"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 (attributed)

"I didn't fire him because he was a stupid 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 behind bars. I fired him because he wouldn't accept the authority of the President."

—Harry S. Truman (on firing Douglas MacArthur).

"My forebears were Confederates ... but my very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten."

—Harry S. Truman