Lee Marks

“When General Eisenhower was elected president, his predecessor, Harry Truman, said: “Poor Ike; when he was a general, he gave an order and it was carried out. Now he is going to sit in that big office and he’ll give an order and not a damn thing is going to happen.” The reason why “not a damn thing is going to happen” is, however, not that generals have more authority than presidents. It is that military organizations learned long ago that futility is the lot of most orders and organized the feedback to check on the execution of the order. They learned long ago that to go oneself and look is the only reliable feedback.5 Reports—all an American president is normally able to mobilize—are not much help. All military services have long ago learned that the officer who has given an order goes out and sees for himself whether it has been carried out. At the least he sends one of his own aides—he never relies on what he is told by the subordinate to whom the order was given. Not that he distrusts the subordinate; he has learned from experience to distrust communications.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

“The bulk of the uranium available to”
― Harry S. Truman, 1946-52: Years of Trial and Hope

“[I am] just a common everyday man whose instincts are to be ornery, who's anxious to be right.”
― Harry Truman, Memoirs By Harry S Truman Volume Two Years of Trail and Hope

“President Harry S. Truman is said to have famously asked for a one-handed economist, noting that “all my economists say, on the one hand and on the other.”
― Greg Ip, The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World