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Ronald Reagan Quotes
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I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would
have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress. The United States remains the last best hope for a mankind plagued by
tyranny and deprivation. America is no stronger than its people - and that
means you and me. Well, I believe in you, and I believe that if we work
together then one day we will say, ``We fought the good fight. We finished
the race We kept the faith.'' And to our children and our children's
children we can say, ``We did all that could be done in the brief time that
was given to us here on earth I'm convinced more than ever that man finds liberation only when he
binds himself to God and commits himself to his fellow man. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with
the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its
future.
Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born. Ronald Reagan
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. Ronald Reagan
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. Ronald Reagan
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidizes it. Ronald Reagan
I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete. Ronald Reagan
I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting. Ronald Reagan
People don't start wars, governments do. Ronald Reagan
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book. Ronald Reagan Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. Ronald Reagan The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away. Ronald Reagan
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' Ronald Reagan
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated. Ronald Reagan
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder. Ronald Reagan
Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying. Ronald Reagan
To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last--but eat you he will. Ronald Reagan
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. Ronald Reagan
You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans. Ronald Reagan, quoted in Observer,
March 29 1981
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes. Ronald Reagan, Said during a radio
microphone test, 1984
Welfare's purpose should
be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
It is not my intention
to do away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with us, not
over us; stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must
provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.
We who live in free
market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human
fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when
the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are
given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their
success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic,
progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of
the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government
controls are essential to economic development.
We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. Ronald Reagan -Address to National Association of Realtors, March 28, 1982
How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin. Ronald Reagan -Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! Ronald Reagan -Speech near the Berlin Wall, 1987
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last. Ronald Reagan -October 27, 1964
"However, our task is far from over. Our friends in the other party will never forgive us for our success, and are doing everything in their power to rewrite history. Listening to the liberals, you'd think that the 1980's were the worst period since the Great Depression, filled with suffering and despair. I don't know about you, but I'm getting awfully tired of the whining voices from the White House these days. They're claiming there was a decade of greed and neglect, but you and I know better than that. We were there." Ronald Reagan -RNC Annual Gala, Feb. 3, 1994
It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government." This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. Ronald Reagan -October 27, 1964
Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector. October 27, 1964
The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing. Ronald Reagan -October 27, 1964
Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always "against," never "for" anything.
You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." Ronald Reagan -October 27, 1964 |
