slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

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

“Republicans don’t like people to talk about depressions. You can hardly blame them for that. You remember the old saying: Don’t talk about rope in the house where somebody has been hanged.”

“Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.”

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”

“Republicans don’t like people to talk about depressions. You can hardly blame them for that. You remember the old saying: Don’t talk about rope in the house where somebody has been hanged.”

“I never did give them Hell. I just told the t***h, and they thought it was Hell.”

“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price 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.”

“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.”

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

“He who cannot stand the heat should stay out of the kitchen.”

“A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.”

“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”

“Tact is the ability to step on a man’s toes without messing up the shine on his shoes.”

“Being a President is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.”

EL Loc: Massachusetts

One of my favorite things he did was after giving a speech on honesty at a college graduation, he handed out pens with "I stole this from Harry S Truman" engraved on them.

I was pretty young when he was president but I always enjoyed listening to him.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

A quote attributed to Truman from the play 'Give 'Em Hell, Harry!'...

Truman says: "Say, Rose, there's a story going around about me these days. It says that some old party hen is supposed to have cornered Bess at some party, and said, 'Mrs. Truman, isn't there anything you can do to get the President to stop using the word 'manure'?' And Bess is supposed to have replied, 'It took me forty years to get him to use that word!' "

EL Loc: Massachusetts

LOVE IT!!!

crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island

Yes Slaten, Truman had a charming, salty, straight forward way about him. But when I read the excerpts from and then the entire book Plain Talking by Merle Miller, I was impressed that he thought this one was a dirty, lousy, no good son-of-a-b***h, that one was a dirty, lousy, no good son-of-a-b***h and the other one was a dirty, lousy, no good son-of-a-b***h. After a while I wondered who wasn't a dirty, lousy, no good son-of-a-b***h.

His daughter, Margaret, developed a minor career as a singer. My mother thought she had a fairly nice voice and I have liked what I heard. But one time, a critic drubbed her singing and Truman went on a rant about it.

He called a Republican Congress the do-nothings because they wouldn't roll over and pass his socialized medicine.

And, as can be inferred from your quotes, he was a socialist.

A small man, he could give it but couldn't take it.

Take care.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I wouldn't argue with anything you write here, C-L. Being a fan of memorable quotes, I posted these because Truman was a good source for them. But, except for that one long quote, there seems to be little among the others that suggest Truman was a socialist. However, an in-depth study would suggest as much, though mildly so by today's standards.

If my memory serves me correctly (?) the congress he dealt with passed less legislation than most until recently. And, of course, not all proposed legislation before them had to do with socialized medicine.

Thanks, my friend. You take care, also.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Government controlled power grid.


Government controlled retirement funds - now little more than a Ponzi scheme.


Government price fixing.


Government controlled banking.


Who take their mandatory members money and give it to who? Government.


"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - President Reagan Aug. 12, 1986.

Ask yourself, which of these 'wonderful' government 'initiatives' is actually constitutionally legal for government to institute?