Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1405
AUTHOR:
Harry S. Truman (1884–1972)
QUOTATION:
I’m proud that I’m a politician. 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.
ATTRIBUTION:
HARRY S. TRUMAN, impromptu remarks before the Reciprocity Club, Washington, D.C., April 11, 1958, as reported by the New York World-Telegram and Sun, April 12, 1958, p. 4.
