Ronald Reagan Quotes

(at the Berlin Wall, 1987): Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

The best view of government is seen on a rear view mirror as one is driving away from it.

(in the 1980 campaign): Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

(1964): I love three things in life: drama, politics and sports and I`m not sure they always come in that order.

(1980): I remember some of my own views when I was quite young. For heaven`s sake, I was even a Democrat!

(to his wife after the assassination attempt): Honey, I forgot to duck.

(to his doctors prior to going in the surgery room after being shot): I hope all of you are Republicans.

(semi-consciously, to the nurse who hauled him on the gurney): Does Nancy know about us?

(1980): I know what it`s like to pull the Republican lever for the first time, because I used to be a Democrat myself, and I can tell you it only hurts for a minute and then it feels just great.

(1985): I`ve been criticized for going over the heads of the Congress. So, what`s the fuss? A lot of things go over their heads.

America is too great to dream small dreams.

(from the Alzheimer`s letter): I now begin the journey that will lead me to the sunset of my life. I know that for America, there will always be a bright dawn ahead.

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

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

Government is not the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem!

(in a 1984 debate, referring to Walter Mondale): 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.

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

Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal.

(on Vietnam): I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war than the people have been told.

(Carmel, CA, June 1990): You may think this a little mystical, and I`ve said it many times before, but I believe there was a Divine Plan to place this great continent here between the two oceans to be found by peoples from every corner of the earth. I believe we were preordained to carry the torch of freedom for the world.

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency - even if I`m in a Cabinet meeting.

(During a microphone check on August 11 1984, unaware that he was being broadcast): 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.

They say hard work never hurt anybody, but I figure why take the chance.

We are trying to get unemployment to go up and I think we`re going to succeed.

When I go in for a physical, they no longer ask how old I am. They just carbon-date me.

(from a 1950s interview): Nobody ever `went Hollywood.` They were already that way when they got here. Hollywood just brought it out in them.

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.

Tonight is a very special night, although at my age, every night is a special night.

(His opinion of the Klingon warriors he saw during a visit to the set of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987)): I like them. They remind me of Congress.

(confirming his 1984 re-election victory to the crowd chanting, "Four more years"): I think that`s just been arranged.

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.

I don`t know how anybody could be in politics if they hadn`t been an actor!

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.

(from his Presidential Farewell Address): 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, windswept, 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.

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.

If we ever forget that we`re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

The taxpayer: that`s someone who works for the federal government but doesn`t have to take the civil service examination.

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.

(Notre Dame University. 17 May, 1981): The years ahead will be great ones for our country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization. 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.

Film is forever. I`ve been trapped in some film forever myself.

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

It isn`t that liberals are ignorant. It`s just that they know so much that isn`t so.

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 good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

Freedom and Security go together.

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. Speech at the Republican National Convention, Aug. 17, 1992.

Win one for the Gipper

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.

Trees cause more pollution than automobiles.

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

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.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

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

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

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.

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

Don`t be afraid to see what you see.

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

(During a microphone check on August 11 1984, unaware that he was being broadcast): My fellow Americans. I`m pleased to announce that I`ve signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes.

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.

(at the 1980 presidential debate, when Jimmy Carter accused him of opposing Medicare): There you go again.

I don`t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.

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.

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.

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

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

Facts are stupid things.

Well, I learned a lot....I went down to Latin America to find out from them and (learn) their views. You`d be surprised. They`re all individual countries.

(on Bill Clinton): 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.

I don`t know how anybody could be in politics if they *hadn`t* been an actor!

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.

[During his re-election campaign in 1984America`s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey`s own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make your dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about.

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

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

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

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.

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.

People don`t start wars, governments do.

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.

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 can`t do a damn thing until I`m elected!

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

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

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, subsidise it

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

Some spend their entire lives wondering if they have made a difference in this world. The Marines don`t have that problem.

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

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

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