In celebration of what would have been Ronald Reagan's 99th Birthday, I thought I would post a list of his quotes. I was privileged to have served in the US Army in the 80's and was proud that he was my Commander in Chief.
The list is a little long, but it's Saturday, take a few minutes and read them. These quotes were compiled from speeches and interviews he gave over his lifetime, so some will seem a little dated, but the vast majority ring true loud and clear.
A people free to choose will always choose peace.
Ronald Reagan
A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?
Ronald Reagan
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
Ronald Reagan
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Ronald Reagan
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
Ronald Reagan
But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.
Ronald Reagan
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Ronald Reagan
Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
Ronald Reagan
Don't be afraid to see what you see.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
Ronald Reagan
Facts are stubborn things.
Ronald Reagan
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Ronald Reagan
Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.
Ronald Reagan
Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
Ronald Reagan
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
Ronald Reagan
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
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Ronald Reagan
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
Ronald Reagan
Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer.
Ronald Reagan
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
Ronald Reagan
How can a president not be an actor?
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.
Ronald Reagan
I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.
Ronald Reagan
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.
Ronald Reagan
I'm not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.
Ronald Reagan
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'.
Ronald Reagan
I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
Ronald Reagan
If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.
Ronald Reagan
Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.
Ronald Reagan
Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.
Ronald Reagan
It doesn't do good to open doors for someone who doesn't have the price to get in. If he has the price, he may not need the laws. There is no law saying the Negro has to live in Harlem or Watts.
Ronald Reagan
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
Ronald Reagan
It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available.
Ronald Reagan
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
It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.
Ronald Reagan
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.
Ronald Reagan
Man is not free unless government is limited.
Ronald Reagan
Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Ronald Reagan
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
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!
Ronald Reagan
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Ronald Reagan
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
Ronald Reagan
One picture is worth 1,000 denials.
Ronald Reagan
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
Ronald Reagan
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
Ronald Reagan
People do not make wars; governments do.
Ronald Reagan
Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Ronald Reagan
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Ronald Reagan
Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
Ronald Reagan
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
Ronald Reagan
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
Ronald Reagan
Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.
Ronald Reagan
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
Ronald Reagan
The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
Ronald Reagan
The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
Ronald Reagan
The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.
Ronald Reagan
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
Ronald Reagan
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
Ronald Reagan
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
Ronald Reagan
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
Ronald Reagan
Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
Ronald Reagan
Trust, but verify.
Ronald Reagan
Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.
Ronald Reagan
Violence has been Nicaragua's most important export to the world.
Ronald Reagan
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
Ronald Reagan
We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.
Ronald Reagan
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
Ronald Reagan
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
Ronald Reagan
We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
Ronald Reagan
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
We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.
Ronald Reagan
We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.
Ronald Reagan
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Ronald Reagan
Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
Ronald Reagan
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.
Ronald Reagan
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
Ronald Reagan
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
Ronald Reagan
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
Ronald Reagan
Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.
Ronald Reagan
You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan's 99th birthday
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