Ronald Reagan Quotes
40th U.S. President
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
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.
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
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.
The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
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, subsidize it.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.
Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.
Trust, but verify.
You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
Facts are stubborn things.
Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.
Latinos are Republican. They just don't know it yet.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.
There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
Man is not free unless government is limited.
I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.
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.
Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression.
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.
I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.
Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.
I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.
Don't be afraid to see what you see.
Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.
The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy - the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities - which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.
A people free to choose will always choose peace.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available.
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.
Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.
Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
One picture is worth 1,000 denials.
We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.
Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.
We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.
Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.
Let us ask ourselves, 'What kind of people do we think we are?' And let us answer, 'Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.'
Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer.
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
How can a president not be an actor?
Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.
What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.
Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.
I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'.