Harry Truman

"The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all."

"There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know."

"I felt like I was shot out of a cannon."

"Study men, not historians."

"Trying to be President is like trying to hold a shadow to the ground."

"If there is a God, what's he going to say to me when we meet?"

"The Marine Corps taught me what real esprit de corps means."

"It is in the American character to take a flyer."

"A President cannot always be popular. He has to do what he thinks is right."

"The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose."

"I never thought it my duty to attempt to coerce anybody into measures they thought wrong."

"When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things come with the office."

"The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to us in these Ten Commandments."

"All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it."

"You can't make the President do anything he doesn't want to do. That's why he's President."

"Once a decision is made, you do not look back."

"I have found out that there are only two things necessary in life: one is bowel movement and the other is persistence."

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection."

"A man who is a success makes his failures look like stepping stones to success."

"I'm going to fight hard. I'm going to give them hell."

"The only thing that matters is that you do your best."

"I am a man of principle and the principle is this—if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

"Political considerations are for the politicians to worry about. My job is to look after the welfare of the American people."

"I haven't the foggiest idea what the President is talking about."

"The people have made it clear to me that they wish me to be President."

"I do not believe in the use of my high office to promote my own personal beliefs."

"The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and advise them to do it."

"You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from."

"I have no political ambitions for myself or my children."