History of the Quote: “The Buck Stops Here”

Former managing partner of Gordon, Reicin, West, and Rosenbloom, Edward Reicin is an attorney who currently serves as president of MPC Containment Systems. When he’s not working, Edward Reicin enjoys reading autobiographies of past presidents, including Harry S. Truman, who popularized one of Reicin’s favorite quotes.

The phrase, “the buck stops here,” is related to the commonly used idiom, “passing the buck.” Buck passing is a strategy in poker, where players can choose to pass the dealer role onto the next person. In everyday speech, people who pass the buck are shirking responsibility and delegating decision-making power to others.

During his time in office, President Truman exemplified the philosophy of his administration through the phrase, “the buck stops here.” This meant that he was going to use his executive powers to make important policy decisions. A friend of President Truman commissioned a sign with the famous phrase from a minimum-security prison in Oklahoma.

The back of the sign read, “I’m from Missouri,” which was a nod to the president’s birthplace. The location of the reformatory, El Reno, was drawn on the bottom of the sign. The sign sat on Truman’s desk from 1945 until 1953. Four years later, the sign moved to the Truman Library.