Ronald Reagan Quotes

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.

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

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

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.

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.

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

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

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.

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.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities – which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.

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‘.

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

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

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

The British people know that, given strong leadership, time, and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil.

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

The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.

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.

Today on the NATO line, our military forces face east to prevent a possible invasion. On the other side of the line, the Soviet forces also face east to prevent their people from leaving.

Let us ask ourselves, ‚What kind of people do we think we are?‘ And let us answer, ‚Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.‘

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.

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

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

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.

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

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

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

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

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

Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.

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

We don’t hide our space program. We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute.

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.

People do not make wars; governments do.

You are Mrs. Reagan because Mr. Reagan loves you with all his heart.

I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: ‚This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.‘ Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

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

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.

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.

Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

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