89 quotes
We know now that the basic proposition of the worth and dignity of man is not a sentimental aspiration or a vain hope or a piece of rhetoric. It is the strongest, most creative force now present in this world.
Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb. Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this Government.
Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
May the courage and heroism of which this medal is a symbol always remind us of our debt to these men, and clearly point to the personal responsibility which every American has today to share in the work of building a healthy and peaceful world.
Foreword to The Medal of Honor (1948)
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.
All these things we knew before.
Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
We won the race of discovery against the Germans.
Having found the bomb we have used it.
Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it — don't forget that! We will do that because they are wrong and we are right, and I will prove it to you in just a few minutes.
It is not enough to yearn for peace. We must work, and if necessary, fight for it. The task of creating a sound international organization is complicated and difficult. Yet, without such organization, the rights of man on earth cannot be protected.
Address to Congress (1945)
Never bring that fucking cretin in here again. He did not drop the bomb. I did. That kind of weepiness makes me sick.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
The Russians are like us, they look and act like us. They are fine people. They got along with our soldiers in Berlin very well. As far as I am concerned, they can have whatever they want just so they don't try to impose their system on others.
It is an awful responsibility which has come to us.
We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.
Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and they think it's hell.
Attributed My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents (2003)
No man can get rich in politics unless he's a crook.
Attributed
Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.
Disputed without citation in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1992)
The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know.
Attributed
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Misattributed
Nothing but a damn bunch of bullshit!
Attributed
He's one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.
Attributed
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.
Attributed