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Ronald Reagan

316 quotes

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the annual meeting of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (30 March 1961)
“Back in 1927, an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for President on the Socialist Party ticket, said that the American people would never vote for socialism but he said under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (1961 LP)
“Shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's "bold new imaginative" program with its proper age? Under the tousled boyish haircut it is still old Karl Marx — first launched a century ago. There is nothing new in the idea of a government being Big Brother to us all. Hitler called his "State Socialism" and way before him it was "benevolent monarchy.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a 1960 letter to the GOP presidential candidate Richard Nixon, quoted in Matthew Dallek's The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (2000), p. 38
“We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Televised speech (27 October 1964), cited in Reagan's Reign of Error (1983) by Mark Green
“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.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Fresno Bee (10 October 1965)
“I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at the point of a bayonet, if necessary.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Los Angeles Times (20 October 1965)
“Some seem to forget that I’ve worked with those on movies and television. I warn you. Television may be exciting, but always take what you watch or read with a grain of salt. The more extreme these people act, the more money they make. They don’t care about us. You should always do your own research using verified primary sources. Editorials or articles published can be exciting, but they are seldom the truth. This country will eventually be destroyed for the sake of a paycheck.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Where's the Rest of Me? First Edition (1965)
“So much of our profession is taken up with pretending ... that an actor must spend at least half his waking hours in fantasy.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Where's the Rest of Me? (1965)
“Every morning Nancy and I turn to see what he has to say about people of our respective birth signs.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Regarding his friend Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter, in Where's the Rest of Me? (1965)
“I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Los Angeles Times (17 June 1966)
“A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opposing expansion of Redwood National Park, as quoted in Sacramento Bee (3 March 1966)
“Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Sacramento Bee (28 April 1966)
“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joke during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California, as quoted by Leo E. Litwak in The New York Times Magazine (14 November 1965), p. 174.
“Americans don't go around carrying guns with the idea they're using them to influence other Americans. There's no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: California Legislature Stunned By Invasion Of Armed "Black Panthers", Gettysburg Times (3 May 1967)
“I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war [in Vietnam] than the people have been told.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Los Angeles Times (16 October 1967)
“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.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the Republican National Convention, Platform Committee Meeting, Miami, Florida" (31 July 1968)
“No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote; but a Republican bucking the giveaway trend might re-create some voters who have been staying home.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1960 Letter from Reagan to Richard Nixon, As quoted in The New York Times (27 October 1984)
“I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down — up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer — not an easy answer — but simple.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In some published transcripts or quotations of this speech a variant of this statement appears immediately before the quote by Churchill below, but was not said during Reagan's televised address on (27 October 1964). Th…
“Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace — and you can have it in the next second — surrender.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 last step into a thousand years of darkness. We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, Los Angeles Times (7 January 1970)
“Balancing the budget is like protecting your virtue , you have to learn how to say no.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on 01/03/1975 as shown on YouTube The Tonight Show video
“The demography of happiness, in this study the government found out that young people are happier than old people, and they found out that people that earn more are happier than people that earn less, and they found out that well people are happier than sick people... It took $249,000 to find out that it's better to be rich, young and healthy than old, poor and sick.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On US government spending. Interview on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on 01/03/1975 as shown on YouTube The Tonight Show video
“If it's to be a bloodbath, let it be now. Appeasement is not the answer.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On what to do about student disruptions at UC Berkeley, quoted in the Los Angeles Times (8 April 1970); shortly thereafter, Reagan said: "I certainly don't think there should be a bloodbath on campus or anywhere else. I…
“Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did. To see those, those monkeys from those African countries— damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a phone call to Richard Nixon about a television clip which showed members of the Tanzanian delegation dancing on the UN floor, after the UN voted to recognize China and expel Taiwan. (Conversation 013-008 of the Whi…
“One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Republican State Central Committee Convention (7 September 1973)
“Right now our main effort is directed toward oxides of nitrogen which comes out of automobile tail pipe and cause the photochemical reactions which color the air a muddy brown. There is no question they are a problem in areas like L.A. where we have a more or less constant temperature inversion trapping the air. But Dr. [John] McKetta lists the findings in his field as his no. 3 shock & surprise. Nature it seems also produces oxides of nitrogen. As a matter of fact nature produces 97% of them.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio commentary (August 1975)
“Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini's success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Time (17 May 1976); Reagan adviser Jude Wanniski has indicated that, in 1933, New Dealers as well as much of the world admired Mussolini's success in avoiding the Great Depression
“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at a business conference in Los Angeles (2 March 1977)
“When the commander in chief of a nation finds it necessary to order employees of the government or agencies of the government to do things that would technically break the law, he has to be able to declare it legal in order for them to do that.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to the Frost-Nixon interviews on the Watergate scandal, UPI (21 May 1977)
“The smoke from burning marijuana contains many more cancer-causing substances than tobacco. And if that isn't enough it leads to bronchitis and emphysema. If adults want to take such chances that is their business. But surely the communications media ... should let four million youngsters know what they are risking.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taped statement (August 1979); Reagan is on record as opposing legalization of Marijuana: "I also want to applaud you for helping the people of Oregon fight a misguided minority that would legalize marijuana. That would…
“My first few years as governor were during the period when people talked of long hot summers to come. We had had the Watts riots just prior to my taking office and racial tensions were very high. Without informing the press, I traveled up and down the state meeting with minority groups and leaders, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in headquarters they had in various community projects. I wanted to know firsthand what their problems were, what was on their minds, and what we could do to change things.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Ronald Reagan and Race" (August 2019), by Jay Nordlinger, National Review
“A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Official Announcement of being a candidate for U.S. President (13 November 1979)
“If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1975 interview with journalist Mike Wallace. (Excerpts from full interview were broadcasted on 60 Minutes on December 14, 1975.)
“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Burlington Free Press [Vermont] (15 February 1980)
“I am paying for this microphone!”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At a Republican primary debate in Nashua, New Hampshire (23 February 1980). The moderator had ordered the soundman to turn off Reagan's microphone, as Reagan was about to explain that as his campaign was paying for the …
“And I have to point out that government doesn't tax to get the money it needs, government always needs the money it gets.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bush-Reagan Debate 1980 on Taxes at League of Women Voters. (24 April 1980) · video footage
“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As cited in The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (2007), Alan Greenspan, Penguin Press, Chapter 4 (Private Citizen), p. 87 :
“[Evolution] has in recent years been challenged in the world of science and is not yet believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was believed. But if it was going to be taught in the schools, then I think that also the biblical theory of creation, which is not a theory but the biblical story of creation, should also be taught.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference at evangelical event in Dallas, Texas. (22 August 1980)
“Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well, if it's a definition he wants, I'll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Jersey City, New Jersey (1 September 1980)
“Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards for man-made sources.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ronald Reagan, Sierra (10 September 1980)
“With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, there's one individual who's not being considered at all. That's the one who is being aborted. And I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anderson-Reagan Presidential Debate (21 September 1980)
“I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that one little mountain out there, in these last several months, has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ronald Reagan, Time magazine (20 October 1980)
“There you go again. When I opposed Medicare, there was another piece of legislation meeting the same problem before the Congress. I happened to favor the other piece of legislation and thought that it would be better for the senior citizens to provide better care than the one that was finally passed.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential debate, in response to criticism by Carter about Reagan's position on Medicare (28 October 1980)
“Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential debate (28 October 1980)