Ronald Reagan

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; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.

Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-02-06 - 2004-06-05) was an American actor and politician, who became 33rd Governor of California and 40th President of the United States; He was the husband of Jane Wyman (1940–1948) and Nancy Reagan (married in 1952).

Sourced

Pre-presidency

One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude...

• Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on 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 what it was once like in the United States when men were free.
  • Address to the annual meeting of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, (1961-03-30).
  • Later variant : Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.
    • California Gubernatorial Inauguration Speech (1967-01-05).

• Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
  • Joke during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California, as quoted in The New York Times Magazine (14 November 1965), p. 174
  • Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
    • As quoted in The Reagan Wit (1981) by Bill Adler, p. 30

The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

• Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
  • Interview, Los Angeles Times (1970-01-07)

• If it's to be a bloodbath, let it be now. Appeasement is not the answer.
  • On what to do about student disruptions at UC Berkeley, quoted in the Los Angeles Times (1970-04-08). Shortly thereafter, Reagan said: "I certainly don't think there should be a bloodbath on campus or anywhere else. It was just a figure of speech." Quoted by United Press International, (1970-04-08).

• One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns.
  • Address to the Republican State Central Committee Convention, (1973-09-07).

• If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy.
  • Interview published in Reason (1975-07-01)

I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority.

• There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism — government. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power. In doing so we can only assure that we will eventually be totally subject to it. When dictators come to power, the first thing they do is take away the people's weapons. It makes it so much easier for the secret police to operate, it makes it so much easier to force the will of the ruler upon the ruled.
  • Column published in Guns and Ammo (1975-09-01)

• Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini's success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time."
  • Time (1976-05-17). Reagan adviser Jude Wanniski has indicated that, in 1933, New Dealers as well as much of the world admired Mussolini’s success in avoiding the Great Depression.

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

• I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority. Very simply, they want to be left alone in peace and safety to take care of the family by earning an honest dollar and putting away some savings. This may not sound too exciting, but there is something magnificent about it. On the farm, on the street corner, in the factory and in the kitchen, millions of us ask nothing more, but certainly nothing less than to live our own lives according to our values — at peace with ourselves, our neighbors and the world.
  • Nationally televised address, (1976-07-06).

• Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
  • Remarks at a business conference in Los Angeles (1977-03-02)

• The smoke from burning marijuana contains many more cancer causing substances than tobacco. And if that isn’t enough it leads to bronchitis and emphysema. If adults want to take such chances that is their business. But surely the communications media ... should let four million youngsters know what they are risking.
  • Taped statement (August 1979). Reagan is on record as opposing legalization of Marijuana: "I also want to applaud you for helping the people of Oregon fight a misguided minority that would legalize marijuana. That would be the worst possible message to send to our young people." Speech (1986-07-30). Reagan's son Michael has disputed the fervor of his opposition: "Of course Dad was for legalization. ... He wasn't crazy, he didn't want his kids in jail!"
    • "Reagan's Marijuana Comments Cause Stir" (11 May 2002)

A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.

• They tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where — because of our past excesses — it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don't believe that. And, I don't believe you do either. That is why I am seeking the presidency. I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself. Our leaders attempt to blame their failures on circumstances beyond their control, on false estimates by unknown, unidentifiable experts who rewrite modern history in an attempt to convince us our high standard of living, the result of thrift and hard work, is somehow selfish extravagance which we must renounce as we join in sharing scarcity. I don't agree that our nation must resign itself to inevitable decline, yielding its proud position to other hands. I am totally unwilling to see this country fail in its obligation to itself and to the other free peoples of the world.
  • Official Announcement of being a candidate for U.S. President (1979-11-13)

• A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.
  • Official Announcement of being a candidate for U.S. President (1979-11-13)

• I am paying for this microphone!
  • At a Republican primary debate in Nashua, New Hampshire (1980-02-23). The moderator had ordered the soundman to turn off Reagan's microphone, as Reagan was about to explain that as his campaign was paying for the debate which had originally been arranged by the Nashua Telegraph and that he had invited Bob Dole, Howard Baker, John B. Anderson, and Phil Crane, to be in it as well. Video footage.

• [Evolution] has in recent years been challenged in the world of science and is not yet believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was believed. But if it was going to be taught in the schools, then I think that also the biblical theory of creation, which is not a theory but the biblical story of creation, should also be taught.
  • Press conference at evangelical event in Dallas, Texas. (1980-08-22)

• Depression is when you’re out of work. A recession is when your neighbor’s out of work. Recovery is when Carter’s out of work.
  • Quoted in NY Times, (1980-08-28)

• With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, there's one individual who's not being considered at all. That's the one who is being aborted. And I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.
  • Anderson-Reagan Presidential Debate(1980-09-21)

I believe with all my heart that our first priority must be world peace, and that use of force is always and only a last resort, when everything else has failed, and then only with regard to our national security.

• I am an environmentalist. ... I am for clean air. ... I know Teddy Kennedy had fun at the Democratic convention when he said that I said that trees and vegetation caused 80 percent of the air pollution in this country. Well, now he was a little wrong about what I said. I didn’t say 80 percent. I said 92 percent — 93 percent, pardon me. And I didn’t say air pollution, I said oxides of nitrogen. Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen.
  • Quoted in New York Times, (1980-10-09).

• There you go again.
  • Presidential debate, in response to criticism by Carter about Reagan's position on Medicare (1980-10-28).

• Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?
  • Presidential debate (1980-10-28)

• I believe with all my heart that our first priority must be world peace, and that use of force is always and only a last resort, when everything else has failed, and then only with regard to our national security.
  • Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter. (1980-10-28)

A Time for Choosing (1964)

A Time for Choosing (1964-10-27) This was a televised speech in support of the presidential campaign of Senator Barry Goldwater; often referred to as "The Speech" which launched Reagan's career as a politician. Reagan gave other versions of this speech throughout the country, at various points during the Goldwater campaign.

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down...

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They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer — not an easy answer — but simple.

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

• I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines.

• If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and 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.

• The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.

• You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down — up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order — or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

• Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers.

• They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer — not an easy answer — but simple.
  • In some published transcripts or quotations of this speech a variant of this statement appears immediately before the quote by Churchill below, but was not said during Reagan's televised address on (27 October 1964). Though he did make variations of the speech elsewhere it is unclear exactly when and where he may have said used these precise words:

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

• Later variant: For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told there are no simple answers to the complex problems which are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is, there are simple answers, they just are not easy ones.

• California Gubernatorial Inauguration Speech, (1967-01-05).

• Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this [surrender], 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 — that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand — the ultimatum. And what then? When Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we are retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will have weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he has heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he would rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us. You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin — just in the face of this enemy?

• The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

• 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 last step into a thousand years of darkness. We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.

First term of office

File:Reagan recovering after being shot 1981.jpg

Honey, I forgot to duck.

• Thomas Jefferson made a comment about the Presidency and age. He said that one should not worry about one's exact chronological age in reference to his ability to perform one's task. And ever since he told me that — [laughter] — I stopped worrying.
  • Remarks at the Annual Salute to Congress Dinner, (1981-02-04)

• Intelligence reports say he — Castro — is very worried about me. I'm very worried that we can't come up with something to justify his worrying.
  • White House diary, 11 February 1981 (Source: BBC)

• Honey, I forgot to duck.
  • To his wife, Nancy, while in hospital shortly after he was shot in an assassination attempt. (1981-03-30). Reagan is believed to have been quoting the words of boxer Jack Dempsey to his wife after he lost to Gene Tunney in 1926. [1]

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Every country and every people has a stake in the Afghan resistance, for the freedom fighters of Afghanistan are defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability.

• I hope you're a Republican.
  • Speaking to surgeons as he entered the operating room following a 1981 assassination attempt.[2] To which Dr. Joseph Giordano replied, "We're all Republicans today." An alternative version has Reagan saying "Please tell me you're Republicans." (1981-03-30).

• This is not the time for political fun and games. This is the time for a new beginning. I ask you now to put aside any feelings of frustration or helplessness about our political institutions and join me in this dramatic but responsible plan to reduce the enormous burden of Federal taxation on you and your family.
  • Address to the Nation (1981-07-27)

• Every country and every people has a stake in the Afghan resistance, for the freedom fighters of Afghanistan are defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability.
  • Referring to groups who who were resisting Soviet rule of Afghanistan, with U.S. support, in Proclamation 4908 — Afghanistan Day (1982-03-10)

• From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root....If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly....Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in 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, the ideals to which we are dedicated.
  • Speech to the House of Commons, (1982-06-08)

Abraham Lincoln freed the black man. In many ways, Dr. King freed the white man...

• When the chips are down and the decisions are made as to who the candidates will be, then the 11th commandment prevails and everybody goes to work, and that is: Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.
  • Remarks in New York City at a Reception for Delegates to the State Republican Convention (1982-06-17), this is a restatement of "The Eleventh Commandment" by California Republican Party Chairman Gaylord Parkinson, which Reagan first used in 1966.

• You know, there aren’t six people in this room who know how true this really is.
  • Jokingly whispered to Steven Spielberg after the screening of the movie ET: The Extraterrestrial at the White House (1982-06-27). Spielberg then supposedly told television producer Jamie Shandera about the incident, but Spielberg has since declined to discuss it. Shandera is a UFO conspiracy theorist.

• Abraham Lincoln freed the black man. In many ways, Dr. King freed the white man. How did he accomplish this tremendous feat? Where others — white and black — preached hatred, he taught the principles of love and nonviolence. We can be so thankful that Dr. King raised his mighty eloquence for love and hope rather than for hostility and bitterness. He took the tension he found in our nation, a tension of injustice, and channeled it for the good of America and all her people.
  • Address on the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King (1983-01-15)

The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor.

• What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies? I know this is a formidable, technical task, one that may not be accomplished before the end of this century. Yet, current technology has attained a level of sophistication where it's reasonable for us to begin this effort. It will take years, probably decades of effort on many fronts. There will be failures and setbacks, just as there will be successes and breakthroughs. And as we proceed, we must remain constant in preserving the nuclear deterrent and maintaining a solid capability for flexible response. But isn't it worth every investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear war? We know it is.
  • Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security ("Star Wars Speech") (1983-03-23)

• The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression — to preserve freedom and peace.
  • "Star Wars" speech (1983-03-23)

The only way there could be war is if they start it; we're not going to start a war.

• Some people work an entire lifetime and wonder if they ever made a difference to the world. But the Marines don't have that problem.
  • Letter to Lance Cpl. Joe Hickey (1983-09-23), R.W. "Dick" Gaines refers in detail.

• One hundred nations in the UN have not agreed with us on just about everything that's come before them, where we're involved, and it didn't upset my breakfast at all.
  • Reacting to international criticism of the US invasion of Grenada, during press conference. (1983-11-03).

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

• The only way there could be war is if they start it; we're not going to start a war.
  • Declaring what he would tell Yuri Andropov, head of the Soviet Union, were he in the room; in an interview for People magazine (1983-12-06)

• Not to the extent of throwing up my hands and saying, "Well, it's all over." No. I think whichever generation and at whatever time, when the time comes, the generation that is there, I think will have to go on doing what they believe is right.
  • Answer to question about whether he's mused about Armageddon.Interview for People magazine (1983-12-06)

• I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.
  • Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

• History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
  • Address to the nation from the White House (1984-01-16)

• I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.
  • Joke at the Gridiron Club annual dinner. (1984-03-24)

• We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.
  • Speech at Omaha Beach on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day (1984-06-06)

• My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
  • Joking during a microphone check, unaware that he was being broadcast. [3] (1984-08-11)

• Recognizing the equality of all men and women, we are willing and able to lift the weak, cradle those who hurt, and nurture the bonds that tie us together as one nation under God.
  • Address accepting the Republican presidential nomination, (1984-08-23).

• I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.
  • Debate with Walter Mondale (1984-10-21)

• If you read the letter, you will find there is nothing wrong with it.
  • Commenting on a letter that Reagan had written to Richard Nixon in 1960 regarding John F. Kennedy, as quoted in the NY Times (1984-10-27). The letter to Nixon said: "Unfortunately, he is a powerful speaker with an appeal to the emotions. He leaves little doubt that his idea of the 'challenging new world' is one in which the Federal Government will grow bigger and do more and of course spend more....One last thought — shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's bold new imaginative program with its proper age? Under the tousled boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx — first launched a century ago. There is nothing new in the idea of a Government being Big Brother to us all. Hitler called his 'State Socialism' and way before him it was 'benevolent monarchy.'"

First Inaugural address (1981)

Washington, D. C. (1981-01-20) - Full text online

In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle...

It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams.

• To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

• There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.

• If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay the price.

• It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.

• 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. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.

• Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.

• Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man, George Washington, father of our country. A man of humility who came to greatness reluctantly. He led Americans out of revolutionary victory into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence. And then, beyond the Reflecting Pool, the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln.
  Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses of Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, the Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno, and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.
  Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.
  We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
  The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.

• You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow.

Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)

ISBN 0964112531

We must all educate ourselves to the reality of the horrors taking place.

• Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the Court's result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create such a right.

• The decision by the seven-man majority in Roe v. Wade has so far been made to stick. But the Court's decision has by no means settled the debate. Instead, Roe v. Wade has become a continuing prod to the conscience of the nation.

• We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life — the unborn — without diminishing the value of all human life.

• If you don't know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn.

• The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mother's body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being.

• Regrettably, we live at a time when some persons do not value all human life. They want to pick and choose which individuals have value.

• As a nation, we must choose between the sanctity of life ethic and the "quality of life" ethic. I have no trouble identifying the answer our nation has always given to this basic question, and the answer that I hope and pray it will give in the future.

• As a nation today, we have not rejected the sanctity of human life. The American people have not had an opportunity to express their view on the sanctity of human life in the unborn. I am convinced that Americans do not want to play God with the value of human life. It is not for us to decide who is worthy to live and who is not. Even the Supreme Court's opinion in Roe v. Wade did not explicitly reject the traditional American idea of intrinsic worth and value in all human life; it simply dodged this issue.

• We must all educate ourselves to the reality of the horrors taking place. Doctors today know that unborn children can feel a touch within the womb and that they respond to pain.

• Late-term abortions, especially when the baby survives, but is then killed by starvation, neglect, or suffocation, show once again the link between abortion and infanticide. The time to stop both is now.

• It is possible that the Supreme Court itself may overturn its abortion rulings. We need only recall that in Brown v. Board of Education the court reversed its own earlier "separate-but-equal" decision.

• As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed mothers.

• We will never recognize the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of others.

• We cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.

Second term of office

I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.

• I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.
  • Speech threatening to veto legislation raising taxes (1985-03-13)

The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted, it belongs to the brave.

• I intend to go right on appointing highly qualified individuals of the highest personal integrity to the bench, individuals who understand the danger of short-circuiting the electoral process and disenfranchising the people through judicial activism.
  • Remarks During a White House Briefing for United States Attorneys (1985-10-21).

• The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted, it belongs to the brave.
  • Speech about the Space Shuttle disaster (1986-01-28)

• We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them — this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
  • Speech about the Space Shuttle disaster(1986-01-28)

• Today we have done what we had to do. If necessary, we shall do it again. It gives me no pleasure to say that, and I wish it were otherwise... When our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere in the world on the direct orders of a hostile regime, we will respond so long as I'm in this Oval Office...Despite our repeated warnings, Qadhafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation, his relentless pursuit of terror. He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong.
  • Address to the Nation on the United States Air Strike Against Libya (1986-04-14)

• I have never given a litmus test to anyone that I have appointed to the bench.... I feel very stongly about those social issues, but I also place my confidence in the fact that the one thing that I do seek are judges that will interpret the law and not write the law. We've had too many examples in recent years of courts and judges legislating. They're not interpreting what the law says and whether someone has violated it or not. In too many instances, they have been actually legislating by legal decree what they think the law should be, and that I don't go for. And I think that the two men that we're just talking about here, Rehnquist and Scalia, are interpreters of the Constitution and the law.
  • Interview with LA Times (1986-06-23)

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

• Too much SALT isn’t good for you.
  • Remark about the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, quoted by James Reston, ''The New York Times (1986-07-06)

• 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.
  • Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business (1986-08-15)

• The other day, someone told me the difference between a democracy and a people's democracy. It's the same difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.
  • Remarks at Human Rights Day event (1986-12-10)

Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity.

• A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.
  • Testimony to the Tower Commission (1987-03-04)

• General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
  • Speech at the Brandenburg Gate. (1987-06-12)

Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things.

• Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?
  • Address to United Nations General Assembly, (1987-09-21)

• Diplomacy, of course, is a subtle and nuanced craft, so much so that it's said that when the most wily diplomat of the nineteenth-century passed away, other diplomats asked, on reports of his death, "What do you suppose the old fox meant by that?"
  • Address to United Nations General Assembly, (1987-09-21)

• 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.
  • Remarks in Arlington, Virginia (1987-09-25)

• Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuous revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions.
  • Moscow State University (1988-05-31)

• Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.
  • While signing the Bill Providing Restitution for the Wartime Internment of Japanese-American Civilians, quoting himself at the funeral of Kazuo Masuda in December 1945[4] (1988-08-10)

• Facts are stupid things — stubborn things, I should say. [Laughter]
  • Address to Republican National Convention. (1988-08-15)

Farewell Address (1989)

Washington, D. C. (1989-01-11) - Full text online

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited.

Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world.

• I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

• I won a nickname, "The Great Communicator." But I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: It was the content. 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 — from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.

• The lesson of all this was, of course, that because we're a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. And something else we learned: Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world.

• "We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free.

• I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.

• 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; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.

• We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
  And so, good-bye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Post-presidency

• Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders. ... The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip.
  • As quoted in The Guardian [London] (1989-06-14)

• We have found, in our country, that when people have the right to make decisions as close to home as possible, they usually make the right decisions.
  • Address to the International Committee for the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., (1990-09-17)

• Although I held public office for a total of sixteen years, I also thought of myself as a citizen-politician, not a career one. Every now and then when I was in government, I would remind my associates that "When we start thinking of government as 'us' instead of 'them,' we've been here too long." By that I mean that elected officeholders need to retain a certain skepticism about the perfectibility of government.
  • Address to the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce, (1991-07-10).

America's best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead.

• 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.
  • At the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California [5] (1991-11-04).

• When you see all that rhetorical smoke billowing up from the Democrats, well ladies and gentleman, I'd follow the example of their nominee; don't inhale.
  • Republican National Convention (1992-08-17)

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.

• Well I've said it before and I'll say it again — America's best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead.
  • Republican National Convention (1992-08-17)

• This fellow they've nominated claims he's the new Thomas Jefferson. Well let me tell you something; I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine and Governor... You're no Thomas Jefferson!"
  • Republican National Convention(1992-08-17) (statement modelled after Lloyd Bentsen's jibe at Dan Quayle during debate in 1988).

• 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.
  • Speech at 1994 Gala for 83rd Birthday (1994-02-03)

• In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.
  • Letter announcing Alzheimer's diagnosis (1994-11-05)

• It's true hard work never killed anyone, but I figure, why take the chance?
  • On his relaxed approach to work, as quoted in Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio : a History Illustrated from the Collection of the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum (2001) by Lou Cannon

• I'm not smart enough to lie.
  • Response when asked what qualified him to be President, as quoted in Ronald Reagan : The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (2003) by Peter J. Wallison, p. 167

• Liberals fought poverty and poverty won.
  • As quoted in The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (2004) by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, p. 10

• Any great nation that goes off the gold standard ends being a great nation.
  • Statement to Ron Paul during a helicopter flight, as quoted by Paul in a speech to the Future of Freedom Foundation conference (1-4 June 2007)

Unsourced

• The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor.
  • Said as chastisement to his staff for cancelling an opponent's meeting with then Governor Reagan. Quoted on KCBS radio in 1972 by Reagan's gubernatorial chief of staff.
  • Variant: That person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally; not a 20 percent traitor.

• The entire income tax system was created by Karl Marx.

• If congress sends me legislation that has a tax increase in it, I will veto it faster than Vanna White can turn the letters V-E-T-O!

Misattributed

• A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
  • Actually said by Gerald Ford, this is also sometimes attributed to Barry Goldwater. Paraphrased variant: A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take everything you have.

• Trust, but Verify.
  • This was a signature phrase of Ronald Reagan — he used it dozens of times in public, although he was not the first person known to use it. When Reagan used this phrase, he was usually discussing relations with the Soviet Union and he almost always presented it as a translation of the Russian proverb "doveriai, no proveriai".

• Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.
  • Known as "The Eleventh Commandment" this statement was made famous by Reagan, but was actually created by California Republican Party Chairman Gaylord Parkinson.

Quotes about Reagan

I had a soft spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth, and also because his wife gave the best head in Hollywood. -Dr. Hunter S. Thompson Italic textPublished in Hey Rube

Eulogies

History will give Reagan great credit for standing for principles. ~ George H. W. Bush

Quotes from some of the tributes by world leaders on the death of Reagan. Many world leaders lauded him for how he contributed greatly to the end of the Cold War, others admired him for his help in restoring America's pride. News of Reagan's death put the ongoing presidential election on hold because it was considered disrespectful to have campaigns during a time of mourning.

An excellent leader of our nation during challenging times at home and abroad. ~ Gerald Ford

US Presidents

• History will give Reagan great credit for standing for principles.
  • George H. W. Bush

• This is a sad hour in the life of America ... Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness ... he leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save ... because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny.
  • George W. Bush, who was in Paris when he learned of Reagan's death. Press release - (sound file)

• President Reagan was a formidable political campaigner, who provided ... unshakeable beliefs and was able to express them effectively, both in America and abroad.
  • Jimmy Carter

• He believed that freedom was a universal value ... that people everywhere wished to be free, and ... the Cold War would end.
  • Bill Clinton

• An excellent leader of our nation during challenging times at home and abroad.
  • Gerald Ford

World leaders

• A determined opponent of communism ... he played an important role in bringing an end to communism and to the artificial division of Europe imposed after the Second World War. ... this process culminated in the accession of 10 new member-states to the European Union at the beginning of May this year.
  • Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern

• At home his vision and leadership restored national self-confidence and brought some significant changes to U.S. politics while abroad the negotiation of arms control agreements in his second term and his statesman-like pursuit of more stable relations with the Soviet Union helped bring about the end of the Cold War.
  • British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a letter to President George W. Bush

• He salutes the memory of a great man of state who, through the force of his convictions and his commitment in favor of democracy, will leave a profound mark on history.
  • Official statement of the office of French President Jacques Chirac

True, Reagan was a man of the right. But, while adhering to his convictions, with which one could agree or disagree, he was not dogmatic; he was looking for negotiations and cooperation. ~ Mikhail Gorbachev

• President Reagan, in his long and fruitful life, was witness to ... facing important challenges, including the end of the Cold War.
  • Mexican President Vincente Fox

• Reagan bolstered the U.S. military might to ruin the Soviet economy, and he achieved his goal.
  • Former Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov

• I take the death of Ronald Reagan very hard. He was a man whom fate set by me in perhaps the most difficult years at the end of the 20th century. He has already entered history as a man who was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Cold War. ... It was his goal and his dream to end his term and enter history as a peacemaker.
  • Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev

• The dialogue that President Reagan and I started was difficult. To reach agreement, particularly on arms control and security, we had to overcome mistrust and the barriers of numerous problems and prejudices.
  I don't know whether we would have been able to agree and to insist on the implementation of our agreements with a different person at the helm of American government. True, Reagan was a man of the right. But, while adhering to his convictions, with which one could agree or disagree, he was not dogmatic; he was looking for negotiations and cooperation. And this was the most important thing to me: he had the trust of the American people.
  • Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in a tribute "A President Who Listened" (7 June 2005)

• President Reagan was the Churchill of his era. His commitment to the principles of freedom and democracy and his boundless optimism for humanity will remain an inspiration for us all.
  • Canadian Conservative Party leader (later Prime Minister) Stephen Harper

I recall with deep gratitude the late president's unwavering commitment to the service of the nation and to the cause of freedom as well as his abiding faith in the human and spiritual values which ensure a future of solidarity, justice and peace in our world. ~ Pope John Paul II

• Ronald Reagan, in my view, was the greatest of post-World War II American presidents. More than anybody else, he followed the policies that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the final victory of a more free-market approach to the management of economies over the centrally planned approach of the old eastern states ... His greatest legacy will be the end of Soviet communism.
  • Australian Prime Minister John Howard [6]

• This is an enormously sad day. President Reagan was one of the towering figures of our time, and the man who, with Margaret Thatcher, won the Cold War for the West. ... We, in Great Britain, as in so many other places around the world, owe him an everlasting debt.
  • British Conservative Party Leader Michael Howard

• Having learned with sadness of the death of President Reagan I offer to you and your family my heartfelt condolences and the assurance of my prayers for his eternal rest. I recall with deep gratitude the late president's unwavering commitment to the service of the nation and to the cause of freedom as well as his abiding faith in the human and spiritual values which ensure a future of solidarity, justice and peace in our world.
  • Pope John Paul II , in a telegram to Nancy Reagan (7 June 2004)

• During the arduous period of the Cold War, President Reagan showed great leadership and contributed tremendously to the advancement of democracy and free-market economy. In addition, President Reagan always placed a top priority on the maintenance of a sound Japan-U.S. alliance.
  • Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Official statement (6 June 2004)

• First of all, I should like to express from the very bottom of my heart condolences for the passing of President Ronald Reagan who was deeply respected by the people of the United Sates and who left many important achievements.
  • Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in the opening statement of a press conference at the G-8 Summit (10 June 2004)

• It's always sad to lose someone who has led a nation and we want to express our best wishes and sincere condolences.
  • Jack Layton, Canadian New Democratic Party leader

• President Reagan's leadership served to define an era of sweeping geo-political change ... He helped lay the foundations for the end of the Cold War ... His wit, warmth and unique capacity to communicate helped to make him one of the most influential figures in the second half of the 20th century.
  • Official statement from Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's office.

Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired. ~ Margaret Thatcher

• There's no doubt that the United States would be a very different country if it hadn't been for Ronald Reagan. It may well be that the Cold War would have been very different if it hadn't been for Ronald Reagan.
  • Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin

• Ronald Reagan was a transformational president who made an enormous difference in our lives by leading the West to victory in the Cold War and allowing free people to watch the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
  • Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney

• He was a great president who guided the Cold War toward a victory for freedom against communism ... He would use his skillful humor and leadership to steer them to success.
  • Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone

• Hungary and Europe do not forget Ronald Reagan's help and his support for the former Communist countries.
  • Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán

• His commitment to overcoming the East-West conflict and his vision of a free and united Europe helped pave the way for those developments that ultimately enabled Germany also to regain its unity.
  • German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder

• He will be missed not only by those who knew him and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued. Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired. ... a truly great American hero.
  • Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

• President Ronald Reagan will be remembered in the hearts of all Latvians as a fighter for freedom, liberty, and justice worldwide.
  • Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

• When he saw injustice, he wanted to do away with it. He saw communism, and he wanted to put an end to it.
  • Former Polish President Lech Wałęsa

External links

• RonaldReagan.com
• President Reagan, part of the The American Experience: The Presidents at PBS
• Public Papers of Ronald Reagan at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
• A collection of Reagan's quotes
• Ronald Reagan Quotes at Liberty-Tree.ca
• Ronald Reagan in His Own Words (audiovideo from NPR).
• Links to pre- and post- presidential speeches.
• Daily quotes from the statesman, Ronald Reagan (plus RSS feed)