Harry S Truman 

Quotations

All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
Letter to his sister, 14 November (1947), in Off the Record (1980)

Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
Lecture at Columbia University, 28 April (1959), in Truman Speaks (1960) p. 51 
I never give them (the public) hell. I just tell the truth, and they think it is hell.
In Look 3 April (1956)

A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.
In New York World Telegram and Sun 12 April (1958)

It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.
In Observer 13 April (1958)

I didn't fire him (General MacArthur) because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.
In Merle Miller Plain Speaking ( (1974)) ch. 24 

The buck stops here.
Unattributed motto on Truman's desk 

Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.
Attributed 

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, © Oxford University Press 1999


On June 3, 1948, the United States Army Air Force and Douglas Aircraft Company unveiled a new presidential aircraft called the "Independence." The aircraft was designed to replace the "Sacred Cow," a DC-4. The "Independence" was a special military prototype of the DC-6 transport plane.

 
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