To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches — not I.
(on the "sabotage press"), in Margaret Truman's Bess Truman
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Maturity is knowing that just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean he's a horse's ass.
We have gone a long way toward civilization and religious tolerance, and we have a good example in this country. Here the many Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church do not seek to destroy one another in physical violence just because they do not interpret every verse of the Bible in exactly the same way. Here we now have the freedom of all religions, and I hope that never again will we have a repetition of religious bigotry, as we have had in certain periods of our own history. There is no room for that kind of foolishness here.
I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I had to do it, and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in Tombstone, Ariz.: "Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest."
Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, or Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.
To permit freedom of expression is primarily for the benefit of the majority, because it protects criticism, and criticism leads to progress.
You know, the greatest epitaph in the country is here in Arizona. It’s in Tombstone, Ariz., and this epitaph says, “Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest.” I think that is the greatest epitaph a man could have.
WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to
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