Ronald Reagan Quotes (308 Quotes)

Dreams became issues of East versus West. Hopes became political rhetoric. Progress became a search for power and domination. Somewhere the truth was lost that people don't make war, governments do.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

Latinos are Republican. They just don't know it yet.

This mad dog of the Middle East.

Our whole system of government is based on We the people, but if we the people don't pay attention to what's going on, we have no right to bellyache or squawk when things go wrong.

How can a president not be an actor?

I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full-bloom from my brow -- they came from the heart of a great nation.

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.

Admittedly, there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.

Cures were developed for which there were no known diseases. (Commenting on Congress and the federal budget, 1981)

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.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.

He will be remembered not only as a pioneer in his time, but as a dominant figure in world history,

you get tired, sometimes, counting to 10 as a voice check and so forth.

Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.

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.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

If I could paraphrase a well-known statement by Will Rogers that he never met a man he didn't like -- I'm afraid we have some people around here who never met a tax they didn't like.

We share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss. Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never had a tragedy like this.

It is time to realize we are too great a nation for small dreams. We're not -- as some would have us believe -- doomed to an inevitable fate.

Government is bad when it takes more than 30 percent of a taxpayer's income in taxes. Proudhon was wrong when he said property is theft it's our federal budget that is institutionalized theft.

we did not appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believed the last thing we should do was turn tail and leave yet, the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there.

I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.

But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.

Trust the people -- that is the crucial lesson of history.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.

Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.

I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. It was set here and the price of admission was very simple the means of selection was very simple as to how this land should be populated. Any place in the world and any person from those places any person with the courage, with the desire to tear up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to live in a strange and foreign place, to travel halfway across the world was welcome here.

The poet called Miss Liberty's torch 'the lamp beside the golden door.' Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you really know why we're here tonight. The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every opportunity, is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America. Her heart is full her torch is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the '80s unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed. In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal America's is.

The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant it's just that they know so much that isn't so.

Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.

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.

We believe faith and freedom must be our guiding stars, for they show us truth, they make us brave, give us hope, and leave us wiser than we were.

If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

Violence has been Nicaragua's most important export to the world.

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 what could be done in the brief time that was given us here on earth.

where fraternities are not allowed, communism flourishes.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Peace is more than just the absence of war. True peace is justice, true peace is freedom. And true peace dictates the recognition of human rights.

Why is it inflationary if the people keep their own money, and spend it the way they want to, but not inflationary if the government takes it and spends it the way it wants to

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.

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.