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They said we were soft, that we would not fight, that we could not win. We are not a warlike nation. We do not go to war for gain or for territory; we go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. I think I told every one of them that I would rather have that medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, than to be President of the United States.
Harry S Truman
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Justice remains the greatest power on earth. To that tremendous power alone will we submit.
Harry S Truman
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Brave men don't belong to any one country. I respect bravery wherever I see it.
Harry S Truman
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This Nation was established by men who believed in God. ... You will see the evidence of this deep religious faith on every hand.
Harry S Truman
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Religious and racial persecution is moronic at all times, perhaps the most idiotic of human stupidities.
Harry S Truman
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I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.
Harry S Truman
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Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.
Harry S Truman
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When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
Harry S Truman
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I like riding a bicycle built for two--by myself.
Harry S Truman
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The legislative job of the President is especially important to the people who have no special representatives to plead their cause before Congressand that includes the great majority. I sometimes express it by saying the President is the only lobbyist that one hundred and fifty million Americans have. The other twenty million are able to employ people to represent themand thats all right, its the exercise of the right of petitionbut someone has to look after the interests of the one hundred and fifty million that are left.
Harry S Truman
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The United States is not so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable that we can ignore what the world thinks of us or our record.
Harry S Truman
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You members of this Conference are to be the architects of the better world. In your hands rests our future.
Harry S Truman
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A man who is influenced by the polls or is afraid to make decisions which make him unpopular is not a man to represent the welfare of the country.
Harry S Truman
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Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you.
Harry S Truman
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No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones.
Harry S Truman
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My favorite animal is the mule. He has more horse sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating - and he knows when to stop working.
Harry S Truman
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The most peaceful thing in the world is plowing a field. Chances are you’ll do your best thinking that way. And that’s why I’ve always thought and said, farmers are the smartest people in the world, they don’t go for high hats and they can spot a phony a mile off.
Harry S Truman
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I can remember when a good politician had to be 75 percent ability and 25 percent actor, but I can well see the day when the reverse could be true.
Harry S Truman
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France is France and a grand place for Frenchman.
Harry S Truman
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I don't believe in anti-anything. A man has to have a program; you have to be for something. Otherwise, you will never get anywhere.
Harry S Truman
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My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.
Harry S Truman
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It is noble in its administration: to think and let think, beyond the narrow contracted prejudices of bitter sectarians in these modern times. It is general or universal language, fitted to benefit the poor stranger, which no other institution is calculated to reach, by extending the beneficent hand.
Harry S Truman
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Although I hold the highest civil honour in the world, I have always regarded my rank and title as a Past Grand Master of Masons the greatest honour that had ever come to me.
Harry S Truman
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I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who's hitting you? It's about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.
Harry S Truman
