Ronald Reagan

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

People don't start wars, governments do.

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

To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last--but eat you he will.

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.

The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for 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 and the ideals to which we are dedicated.

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.

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.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

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.

The 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.

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.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.

Don't be afraid to see what you see.

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

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.

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.

America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, 'You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won't become a German or a Turk.' But then he added, 'Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.'

Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.

I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.

It's surprising what you can accomplish when no one is concerned about who gets the credit.

If you're afraid of the future, then get out of the way, stand aside. The people of this country are ready to move again.

Some people go their whole life wondering if they ever made a difference. Marines don’t have that problem.

No arsenal ... is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them right away.

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

Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.

Facts are stupid things.

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.

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.

Well, I would - if they realized that we - again if - if we led them back to that stalemate only because that our retaliatory power, our seconds, or strike at them after our first strike, would be so destructive that they couldn't afford it, that would hold them off.

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.

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 first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

Where would this country be without this great land of ours?

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, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

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

I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.

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

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

Some of your countrymen were unable to distinguish between their native dislike for war and the stainless patriotism of those who suffered its scars. But there has been a rethinking and now we can say to you, and say as a nation, thank you for your courage.

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

The greatness of our country has been based on our thinking that everyone has a right even to be wrong.

I believe the highest aspiration of man should be individual freedom and the development of the individual.

Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation?

Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets.

Are you entitled to the fruits of your labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.

A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.

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

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.

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

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

Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

As government expands, liberty contracts.

Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.

Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put in this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer.

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 West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We will not bother to denounce it, we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.

It is the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism- Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

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 us to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions.

There are some who've forgotten why we have a military. It's not to promote war; it's to be prepared for peace.

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

One definition of an economist is somebody who sees something happen in practice and wonders if it will work in theory.

Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself.

I think the best possible social program is a job.

The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.

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

We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefitting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free.

Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

Outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.

We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?

In an atmosphere of liberty, artists and patrons are free to think the unthinkable and create the audacious; they are free to make both horrendous mistakes and glorious celebrations.

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

I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology.

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

I had a dream the other night. I dreamed that Jimmy Carter came to me and asked why I wanted his job. I told him I didn't want his job. I want to be President.

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

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'

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.