- Harry S. Truman: If I don't drop the bomb, so many more of our young men will die in the invasion of Japan. Their men, too, and women and children. How can I face the people when it's finally over, and say that I had the power to possibly end the war, long ago, spare the lives of their loved ones, and I chose not to use it?
- [pause]
- Harry S. Truman: How could I look them in the face and tell them that?
- Charlie Ross: Harry, you didn't come to me for common sense, you came to me for forgiveness. Do what you have to do. I'll still be your friend. But this is changing the course of history. You clinch the victory in the Pacific, but you sow the whirlwind.
- Eleanor Roosevelt: Harry, the President is dead.
- Harry S. Truman: Mrs. Roosevelt, is there anything I can do for you?
- Eleanor Roosevelt: Oh! Is there anything *we* can do for *you*? You are the one in trouble now.
- Harry S. Truman: Charlie, Bess thinks you'd make a hell of a press secretary.
- Charlie Ross: Oh, Jesus, no, Harry.
- Harry S. Truman: Oh, you can't say no to Bess. I'm appointing Frank here secretary.
- Frank Vassar: Secretary of what?
- Harry S. Truman: Just secretary. Franklin's staff all look at me like a skunk at a wedding. I need some Missouri around me real quick.
- Bess Truman: [the Trumans have just moved into the White House] After all this time - our first, Harry. Our own house.
- Eddie Jacobsen: [to Truman, at the signing of the document recognizing the state of Israel] God put you in your mother's womb, for this moment.
- [Upon taking the presidential office after Roosevelt's unexpected death]
- Harry S. Truman: I don't know if any of you have had a bale of hay fall on you. Well, I feel like the sun, the stars and all the planets just fell on me. Don't expect too much of me.
- Boss Tom Prendergast: I've got a job for you.
- Harry S. Truman: Well, that's mighty nice of you. What's the job, dog-catcher?
- Boss Tom Prendergast: How would you like to run for Congress?
- Harry S. Truman: Well, Jesus Christ and General Jackson. The answer's yes.
- [Talking about his wife]
- Harry S. Truman: Say hello to the boss.
- [Talking about his daughter]
- Harry S. Truman: And the boss's boss.
- Harry S. Truman: [Truman refuses to leak an FBI file containing dirt on his political nemesis Joseph McCarthy] What the hell kind of word is "deniability"?
- [pause]
- Harry S. Truman: I'm just the man holding this office. If I dirty it, the dirt doesn't leave with me when I go, it stays here to rub off on whoever comes after me from now on.
- Margaret Truman: [Margaret sees a rat scurry across the White House floor] Oh my God, it's a Republican!
- Bess Truman: [the Trumans have just moved into the White House] It's gonna take a lot of Bon Ami to make this place livable.