Ronald Reagan

• “Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.”
• “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
• “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 steal them away.”
• “Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.”
• “I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.”
• “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.”
• “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
• “All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”
• “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.”
• “Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.”
• “But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.”
• “Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”
• “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
• “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.”
• “Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.”
• “Facts are stubborn things.”
• “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”
• “Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.”
• “Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”
• “Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.”
• “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”
• “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
• “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
• “Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
• “Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.”
• “How can a president not be an actor?”
• “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.”
• “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
• “I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.”
• “I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”
• “I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.”
• “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’.”
• “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.”
• “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.”
• “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
• “Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.”
• “Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.”
• “Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.”
• “Man is not free unless government is limited.”
• “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
• “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.”
• “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!”
• “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”
• “One picture is worth 1,000 denials.”
• “One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.”
• “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
• “Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.”
• “Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.”
• “Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’.”
• “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.”
• “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
• “The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”
• “The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.”
• “They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.”
• “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.”
• “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.”
• “To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.”
• “Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.”
• “Trust, but verify.”
• “Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.”
• “We are never defeated unless we give up on God.”
• “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
• “We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.”
• “We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.”
• “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.”
• “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”
• “Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”
• “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”
• “You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.”
• “Millions of individuals making their own decisions in the marketplace will always allocate resources better than any centralized government planning process.”
• “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”
• “I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.”