Ronald Reagan Quotes

“I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things.”

“With our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today, we will achieve our destiny to be as a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see.”

“I think, too, that we've got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you've looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees-you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?Opposing expansion of Redwood National Park.”

“Never let the things you can't do, stop you from doing what you can.”

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

“I do not feel betrayed. ... He has a fine record. He is a national hero. (On Oliver L North's work)”

“If you're explaining, you're losing.”

“Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it's common sense.”

“ALEC has forged a unique partnership between state legislators and leaders from the corporate and business community. This partnership offers businessmen the extraordinary opportunity to apply their talents to solve America's problems and build on our opportunities.”

“Facts are stupid things — stubborn things, I should say.”

“You can achieve anything in politics provided that you let someone else take the credit.”

“Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day.”

“There are those, of course, who claim we must give up freedom in exchange for economic progress. Well, pardon me, but anyone trying to sell you that line is no better than a three-card-trick man. One thing becoming more clear every day is that freedom and progress go hand in hand. Throughout the developing world, people are rejecting socialism because they see that it doesn't empower people, it impoverishes them.”

“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.”

“Since I came to the White House, I got two hearing aids, a colon operation, skin cancer, a prostate operation, and I was shot. The damn thing is, I've never felt better in my life.”

“Every new day begins with possibilities. It's up to us to fill it with the things that move us toward progress and peace.”

“Today it is difficult to find leaders who are independent of the forces that have brought us our problems: The Congress, the bureaucracy, the lobbyists, big business, and big labor.”

“The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.”

“I can't believe that this world can go on beyond our generation and on down to succeeding generations with this kind of weapon on both sides poised at each other without someday some fool or some maniac or some accident triggering the kind of war that is the end of the line for all of us. And I just think of what a sigh of relief would go up from everyone on this earth if someday-and this is what I have-my hope, way in the back of my head-is that if we start down the road to reduction, maybe one day in doing that, somebody will say, 'Why not all the way? Let's get rid of all these things'.”

“This country was founded and built by people with great dreams and the courage to take great risks.”

“We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”

“There is no institution more vital to our Nation's survival than the American family. Here the seeds of personal character are planted, the roots of public virtue first nourished. Through love and instruction, discipline, guidance and example, we learn from our mothers and fathers the values that will shape our private lives and our public citizenship.”

“Trees cause pollution.”

“Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted, it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.”

“I'm proud of having been one of the first to recognize that states and the federal government have a duty to protect our natural resources from the damaging effects of pollution that can accompany industrial development.”

“Those who have known freedom and then lost it, have never known it again”

“We still have too much air and water pollution and we still need to work to reduce it. But we also need to put the problem of pollution into a historical as well as scientific perspective.”

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

“We can't build a safer world with honorable intentions and good will alone. Achieving the fundamental goals our nation seeks in world affairs - peace, human rights, economics progress national independence and international stability - means supporting our friends and defending our interests.”

“My philosophy and my belief was that there was a long way for us to go in improving what we had ever known before, that this country of ours was a country of constant improvement. And so I thought that, well, what my whole approach was based on the promise of a better America.”

“We will remain steady. We will pursue every avenue in the search for peace and stability.”

“If you can't summarize an issue on one page, you don't understand the issue well enough.”

“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.”

“We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world.”

“America is to great to dream small dreams.”

“As two proud and independent peoples, there is much that distinguishes us one from the other, but there is also much that we share: a vast continent, with its common hardships and uncommon duties; generations of mutual respect and support, and an abiding friendship that grows ever stronger.”

“In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. 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.”

“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.”

“As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will not surrender for it - now or ever.”

“We have every right to dream heroic dreams.”

“Everywhere we go, Nancy makes the world a little better.”

“Our American tradition of neighbor helping neighbor has always been one of our greatest strengths and most noble traditions.”

“I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine. And believe me, you are no Thomas Jefferson. (at 1992 Republican party convention, referring to Bill Clinton)”

“In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.”

“America is a melting pot, and education has been a mainspring for our democracy and freedom, a means of providing gifts of knowledge and opportunity to all citizens, no matter how humble their background, so they could climb higher, help build the American dream, and leave a better life for those who follow.”

“There's no question I am an idealist, which is another way of saying 'I am an American.'”

“I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform four years myself.”

“A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah.”

“All of us should remember that the federal government is not some mysterious institution comprised of buildings, files and paper. The people are the government. What we create we ought to be able to control.”

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