Ronald Reagan Quotes (308 Quotes)

It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of human history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens.

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.

In raising and instructing our children, in providing personal and compassionate care for the elderly, in maintaining the spiritual strength of religious commitment among our people-- in these and other ways, America's families make immeasurable contributions to America's well-being. Today, more than ever, it is essential that these contributions not be taken for granted and that each of us remember that the strength of our families is vital to the strength of our nation.

I know you receive many letters like this, and I recognize that over time they must come to seem fairly routine, ... Please understand, however, that my years in your service will always be very special to me. The inspiration you have given me will burn brightly in my heart long after I have left the lights of the White House behind.

I made a speech by that title A Time for Choosing in 1964. I said, We've been told increasingly that we must choose between left or right. But we're still using those terms -- left or right. And I'll repeat what I said then in '64. There is no left or right. There's only an up or down up to the ultimate in individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society -- or down to the totalitarianism of the ant heap. And those today who, however good their intentions, tell us that we should trade freedom for security are on that downward path.

There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

With our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today, we will achieve our destiny to be as a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see.

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.

I recently learned something quite interesting about video games. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets.

An actor knows two important things -- to be honest in what he is doing and to be in touch with the audience. That's not bad advice for a politician either.

Let us beware that while they Soviet rulers preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination over all the peoples of the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world. I urge you to beware the temptation to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of any evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil.

Facts are stubborn things.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

Being free and prosperous in a world at peace. That's our ultimate goal.

We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.

Well, I learned a lot... I went down to Latin America to find out from them and (learn) their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries.

In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about. (August 17, 1992)

Reagan is indisputably a part of America, and he may become a part of American history.

I like photographers you don't ask questions.

I've always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other. (April 11, 1984)

Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

Now you hear a lot of jokes about Silent Cal Coolidge, ... but I think that the joke is on the people that make jokes because if you look at his record, he cut the taxes four times. We had probably the greatest growth and prosperity that we've ever known. And I have taken heed of that because if he did nothing, maybe that's the answer for the Federal Government.

We are for aiding our allies by sharing some of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We are helping 107 We spent 146 billion. With that money, we bought a 2-million-dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity.

All systems are capitalist. It's just a matter of who owns and controls the capital -- ancient king, dictator, or private individual. We should properly be looking at the contrast between a free market system where individuals have the right to live like kings if they have the ability to earn that right and government control of the market system such as we find today in socialist nations.

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.

Governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people.

The Democrats say that the United States has had its days in the sun, that our nation has passed its zenith. My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available.

The Bridge to Nowhere.

One picture is worth 1,000 denials.

I urged the Soviet leader, Mr. Gorbachev, to send a new signal of openness to the world by tearing down that wall.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

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. (October 27, 1964)

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.

There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us. We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. . . . If we lose freedom here in America, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.

Touch you I must or I'll burst, This morning I'm ambitious, proud, energetic and very madly in love with you.

We're the party that wants to see an America in which people still can get rich

I know you have been critically looking at the mores and customs of the past and questioning their value. Every generation does that. But don't discard the time-tested values upon which civilization has been built just because they are old.

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.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

During my first press conference as president, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution.

Anyone that's ever had their kitchen done over knows that it never never gets done as soon as you wish it would.

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. (October 27, 1964)

I hope you're all Republicans.

Every dollar the Federal Government does not take from us, every decision it does not make for us will make our economy stronger, our lives more abundant, our future more free.

Millions of individuals making their own decisions in the marketplace will always allocate resources better than any centralized government planning process.

I oppose registration for the draft . . . because I believe the security of freedom can best be achieved by security through freedom.

The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.

The best minds in government If any were, business would hire them away.