Quotes by Ronald Reagan
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People who think a tax boost will cure inflation are the same ones who believe another drink will cure a hangover.

Because you won't get gun control by disarming law abiding citizens. There's only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up, and if you don't actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time.

People are tired of wasteful government programs and welfare chiselers, and they are angry about the constant spiral of taxes and government regulations, arrogant bureaucrats, and public officials who think all of mankind's problems can be solved by throwing the taxpayers dollars at them.

Our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring democracy the tolerance it requires to survive.

If I'd gotten the job I wanted at Montgomery Ward, I suppose I would never have left Illinois.

Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it ... the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.

What's happening in Cuba is not a failure of the Cuban people. It's a failure of Fidel Castro and the Communists.

The White House is the leakiest place I've ever been in.

Let's face it.., our current immigration control system is like a busy intersection without a traffic cop: sure there are laws on the books, but absent enforcement, there are too many accidents.

Freedom-loving people around the world must say ... I am a refugee in a crowded boat foundering off the coast of Vietnam. I am Laotian, a Cambodian, a Cuban, and a Miskito Indian in Nicaragua. I, too, am a potential victim of totalitarianism.

These are the values inspiring those brave workers in Poland. The values that have inspired other dissidents under communist domination. They remind us that where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.

Poland is not East or West. Poland is at the center of European civilization. It has contributed mightily to that civilization. It is doing so today by being magnificently unreconciled to oppression.

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.

The little dictator who went to Moscow in his green fatigues to receive a bear hug did not forsake the doctrine of Lenin when he returned to the West and appeared in a two-piece suit. (On Daniel Ortega Saavedra).

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 owe this freedom of choice and action to those men and women in uniform who have served this nation and its interests in time of need. In particular, we are forever indebted to those who have given their lives that we might be free.

Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Every new day begins with possibilities.

Stick to your dreams and determine that you're going to make them come true.

Respect for human rights is not social work; it is not merely an act of compassion. It is the first obligation of government and the source of its legitimacy.

Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver 5 minutes longer.

The price of freedom may be high, but never so costly as the loss of freedom.

If you think you can -- you can!

Self-defense is not only our right; it is our duty.

Doverey, no proverey -- Trust but verify.

The future doesn't belong to the lighthearted. It belongs to the brave.

If you're explaining, you're losing.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.

There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.

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.

California produces 40% of America's fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts -- the kind you eat. We have had a bumper crop of the other variety, too.

The Congress of the United States, in recognition of the unique contribution of the Bible in shaping the history and character of this Nation, and so many of its citizens, has by Senate Joint Resolution 165 authorized and requested the President to designate the year 1983 as the 'Year of the Bible.'

Our nation will prosper or decline in direct proportion to our selection of leaders who are guided by the Holy Spirit. If we fail to select Godly leaders our destiny will surely be as that of the Roman Empire.

We can't have it both ways. We can't expect God to protect us in a crisis and just leave Him over there on the shelf in our day-to-day living. I wonder if sometimes He isn't waiting for us to wake up, He isn't maybe running out of patience.

I didn't leave the Democratic party; the Democratic party left me.

Without God, there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience... without God, there is a coarsening of the society; without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of human history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens.

If the family goes, so goes our civilization.

Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs production protection.

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 time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him for the healing of America -- our country is in need of and ready for a spiritual renewal.

When we speak of peace, we should not mean just the absence of war. True peace rests on the pillars of individual freedom, human rights, national self-determination, and respect for the rule of law.

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

Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.

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

When I've heard all I need to make a decision, I don't take a vote. I make a decision.

America is too great for small dreams.

Education is not the means of showing people how to get what they want. Education is an exercise by means of which enough men, it is hoped, will learn to want what is worth having.

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours.

Socialists ignore the side of man that is the spirit. They can provide you shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you're ill, all the things guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we also dream.

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

There is no foundation like the rock of honesty and fairness, and when you begin to build your life on that rock, with the cement of the faith in God that you have, then you have a real start.

With freedom comes responsibility, a responsibility that can only be met by the individual.

By working together, pooling our resources and building on our strengths, we can accomplish great things.

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.

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

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

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

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

Violence has been Nicaragua's most important export to the world.

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

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.

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.'

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

Mad or glad, Mr. Reagan is head over heels in love with Mrs. Reagan and can't even imagine a world without her -- He loves her.

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

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.

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

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.

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

Facts are stubborn things.

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.

Don't be afraid to see what you see.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

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

One picture is worth 1,000 denials.

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

No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.

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

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!