Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Quotes

• 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.