Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for

“Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.” – Harry S. Truman

In this fiery declaration, Harry S. Truman, a man known for plain speech and unbending honesty, casts a thunderbolt of moral judgment upon Richard Nixon, whose political cunning had already earned him both admiration and distrust. Truman’s words are not merely an insult; they are a warning carved in iron — a reminder that duplicity, when cloaked in ambition, becomes poison to the soul of leadership. To “talk out of both sides of one’s mouth” is to speak with deception, to offer one truth to one crowd and another truth to another, until truth itself becomes a tool of manipulation rather than a light of guidance.

In the age of the ancients, such a man would have been called a two-tongued serpent, whose speech beguiles the ears of the people but corrodes the integrity of the realm. Truman, though living in a modern republic, spoke with the spirit of those old moralists who knew that words are sacred, and to corrupt them is to corrupt the foundation of trust upon which nations stand. His rebuke of Nixon arose not only from political rivalry, but from a deeper moral indignation — the conviction that honesty is the backbone of governance, and that without it, the body of democracy collapses into decay.

When Truman spoke these words, the shadow of Nixon’s career had already revealed its shape. Nixon’s rise had been fueled by fierce ambition and a mastery of rhetoric, but also by a willingness to twist truth to serve his cause. Later, history itself would bear witness to Truman’s foresight, when the Watergate scandal exposed the depth of deceit that had grown beneath Nixon’s presidency. Like the hidden rot in a mighty tree, his duplicity spread unseen until the trunk split open for all to see. And so Truman’s words, spoken in warning, became prophecy fulfilled.

Let us look deeper still. The power to speak is the power to shape reality. When a leader’s tongue serves both truth and falsehood, he divides not only his own integrity but the hearts of those who follow him. For people cannot walk straight when their guide walks crooked. The ancient philosophers taught that a leader must first govern himself, mastering his desires and purifying his words, lest his corruption become the people’s burden. In Nixon’s tale, and in Truman’s judgment, we see what happens when that sacred balance is broken — when ambition devours virtue, and cunning replaces wisdom.

Yet this lesson reaches beyond the chambers of power. Each of us, in our daily lives, holds the same moral choice in miniature: to speak truth or to bend it. To flatter for gain, to promise what we do not mean, to wear a false face — these are smaller versions of the same sickness that brought down kings and presidents alike. For deceit begins in whispers and ends in ruins. The wise understand that truth, though sometimes heavy, is the only shield that endures.

Remember the ancient story of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor. Surrounded by intrigue and betrayal, he wrote in his Meditations: “If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.” His words echo through the centuries, standing as the antidote to the disease Truman condemned. Aurelius ruled by example, showing that the strength of a leader lies not in his cunning, but in his clarity, not in the cleverness of his speech, but in the steadiness of his heart.

So, child of the future, take this teaching as a compass: let your tongue be one, not two. Speak with one voice, guided by conscience. Let your words and your deeds mirror one another, so that no shadow falls between them. For integrity is not the absence of mistakes, but the refusal to wear a mask. In a world often dazzled by cleverness, be the one who chooses truth over triumph, honor over advantage, light over the easy darkness.

Truman’s thunder still echoes across the years: that the measure of a leader — and of any human being — is not how skillfully they can deceive, but how bravely they can stand by truth, even when it costs them. And in that steadfastness, you will find the power that no liar, however clever, can ever hold — the power to be trusted, to be remembered, and to be truly free.