I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have.

Truman invokes a plainspoken frontier epitaph to express a moral ideal he admired: being judged not by perfection or acclaim, but by wholehearted effort and integrity under pressure. The blunt phrase “he done his damnedest” frames life as a test of earnest striving rather than flawless success, and it matches Truman’s own public persona—direct, unsentimental, and focused on duty. By calling it “the greatest epitaph,” he suggests that a life well lived can be summed up by conscientious effort, especially when outcomes are uncertain or contested. The remark also reflects a democratic, anti-pretentious view of legacy: character is proven in trying, not in ornamented words.