Ronald Reagan Quotations

When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible.

We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

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.

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.

The joke in our family is that we can cry reading the phone book.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

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.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

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.

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

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.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

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

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.

Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer.

I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.

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

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

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.

We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.

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

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 should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

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

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

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.

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

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

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

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

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.

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

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.

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

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

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.

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

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

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

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 always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.

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.

It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

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 are never defeated unless we give up on God.

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

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

You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.

Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.

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.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

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.

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

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

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

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

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.

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

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

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

It doesn't do good to open doors for someone who doesn't have the price to get in. If he has the price, he may not need the laws. There is no law saying the Negro has to live in Harlem or Watts.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

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

We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

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.

No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.

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.

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.

The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.

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

How can a president not be an actor?

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

Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.

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

Don't be afraid to see what you see.

Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.

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.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

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.

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'.

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

I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.

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

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.