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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index T > Harry S. Truman Quotes

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Harry S. Truman
(8 May 1884 - 26 Dec 1972)

American president who served as the 33rd President of the U.S. from 1945 to 1953. Early in his term, in Aug 1945, he authorized use of two atomic weapons against the Japanese to end World War II.

Science Quotes by Harry S. Truman (4 quotes)

Daylight time, a monstrosity in timekeeping.
— Harry S. Truman
As quoted in David Prerau, Seize the Daylight: The Curious And Contentious Story of Daylight (2006).
Science quotes on:  |  Daylight (23)  |  Daylight Saving Time (10)  |  Monstrosity (6)  |  Time (1911)  |  Timekeeping (2)

Such an atmosphere is un-American, the most un-American thing we have to contend with today. It is the climate of a totalitarian country in which scientists are expected to change their theories to match changes in the police state's propaganda line.
[Stinging rebuke of J. Parnell Thomas, Chairman, House Committee on Un-American activities, who had attacked Dr. Condon (1 Mar 1948) as a weak link in American atomic security.]
— Harry S. Truman
Opening address (13 Sep 1953) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science where Condon would be elected as the new AAAS president. Obituary, New York Times (27 Mar 1974), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attack (86)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate (102)  |  Country (269)  |  Expect (203)  |  House (143)  |  Match (30)  |  Most (1728)  |  Police (5)  |  Politics (122)  |  Propaganda (13)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Security (51)  |  State (505)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Today (321)  |  Totalitarian (6)  |  Un-American (3)  |  Weak (73)

The atom bomb was no “great decision.” It was used in the war, and for your information, there were more people killed by fire bombs in Tokyo than dropping of the atomic bombs accounted for. It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness. The dropping of the bombs stopped the war, save millions of lives.
— Harry S. Truman
In reply to a question at a symposium, Columbia University, NYC (28 Apr 1959). In Truman Speaks (1960), 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Arsenal (5)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Decision (98)  |  Dropping (8)  |  Fire (203)  |  Great (1610)  |  Information (173)  |  Kill (100)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Merely (315)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Righteousness (6)  |  Save (126)  |  Saving (20)  |  Stopped (3)  |  Tokyo (3)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  World War II (9)

The human race has reached a turning point. Man has opened the secrets of nature and mastered new powers. If he uses them wisely, he can reach new heights of civilization. If he uses them foolishly, they may destroy him. Man must create the moral and legal framework for the world which will insure that his new powers are used for good and not for evil.
— Harry S. Truman
State of the Union Address (4 Jan 1950). In William J. Federer, A Treasury of Presidential Quotations (2004), 291.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  Create (245)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Evil (122)  |  Framework (33)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Secret (216)  |  Turning Point (8)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)



Quotes by others about Harry S. Truman (1)

That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The [atomic] bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives.
[A skeptical comment on the U.S. Atomic Bomb Project, to President Harry S. Truman in 1945.]
Memoirs: Year of Decisions (1955), Vol. 1, 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Expert (67)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Fool (121)  |  Never (1089)  |  President (36)  |  Project (77)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Speak (240)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
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Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


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