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When you can't do any housecleaning because everything that goes on is a damned secret, then we're on our way to something the Founding Fathers didn't have in mind. Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

Harry S. Truman

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Harry S. Truman
Age: 88 †
Born: 1884
Born: May 8
Died: 1972
Died: December 26
33Rd U.S. President
Businessperson
Diarist
Judge
Military Officer
Politician
Lamar
Missouri
Harry Truman
Truman
President Truman
H. S. Truman
H. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Government
Founding
Everything
Fathers
Mind
Democratic
Something
Goes
Way
Secret
Free
Father
Secrecy
Didn
Damned

More quotes by Harry S. Truman

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We must never forget that this coutry was founded by men who came to these shores to worship God as they pleased. Catholics, Jews, and Protestants, all came here for this great purpose. They did not come here to do as they pleased - but to worship God as they pleased, and that is an important distinction.
Harry S. Truman
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In this shrinking world, it is futile to seek safety behind geographical barriers. Real security will be found only in law and in justice.
Harry S. Truman
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Our religious faith gives us the answer to the false beliefs of Communism... I have the feeling that God has created us and brought us to our present position of power and strength for some great purpose.
Harry S. Truman
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I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another.
Harry S. Truman
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No one who has not had the responsibility can really understand what it is like to be President, not even his closest aides or members of his immediate family. There is no end to the chain of responsibility that binds him, and he is never allowed to forget that he is President.
Harry S. Truman
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Whenever the press quits abusing me I know Im in the wrong pew. I dont mind it because when they throw bricks at meIm a pretty good shot myself and I usually throw em back at em.
Harry S. Truman
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One of the presidents we could have done without.... There are some things I admire about Tyler, but there were also plenty of things that weren't so admirable.... The reason I have a certain amount of grudging respect for John Tyler is that he knew his own mind and stuck to his decisions.
Harry S. Truman
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The only new thing is history we don't know.
Harry S. Truman
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If you don't have your own goals, you'll be doomed to work toward someone else's.
Harry S. Truman
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If that's art, I'm a Hottentot!
Harry S. Truman
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It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.
Harry S. Truman
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When contemplating General Eisenhower winning the Presidential election, Truman said, Hell sit here, and hell say, Do this! Do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ikeit wont be a bit like the Army. Hell find it very frustrating.
Harry S. Truman
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This generation, raised on Eyewitness News, conditioned by the instant replay, and spared the illumination that comes from tedious historical study, tends to be even more ahistorical than most.
Harry S. Truman
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The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's.
Harry S. Truman
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I enjoyed my new position as vice president, but it took me a while to get used to the fact that I no longer had the voting privileges I had enjoyed for 10 years as a senator.
Harry S. Truman
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The greatest honor that has come to me, and that can ever come to me in my life, is to be Grand Master of Masons in Missouri.
Harry S. Truman
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A man cannot have character unless he lives within a fundamental system of morals that creates character.
Harry S. Truman
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When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril.
Harry S. Truman
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Canadian-American relations for many years did not develop spontaneously. The example of accord provided by our two countries did not come about merely through the happy circumstance of geography. It is compounded of one part proximity and nine parts good will and common sense.
Harry S. Truman
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The difficulty with businessmen entering politics, after they've had a successful business career, is that they want to start at the top.
Harry S. Truman