The Best of Ronald Reagan
Top Speeches:
Oct 26th, 1964
Jan 11, 1989
If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.
I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.
To compare Congress to drunken sailors is an insult to drunken sailors.
Government is the people's business and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid.
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.
There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.
History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
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.
The fact is, what they called "radical" was really "right". What they called "dangerous" was just "desperately needed".
Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere."
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.
The Difference between them and us is that we want to check government spending, and they want to spend government checks.
When those who are governed do too little, those who govern can-and often will- do too much.
The credibility gap is so great in Washington they told us the truth the other day hoping we wouldn't believe it.
To blame the military for war makes about as much sense as suggesting that we get rid of cancer by getting rid of doctors.
The taxpayer, that's someone who works for the federal gov't but doesn't have to take a civil service examination.
We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the
American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as
his strength and ability will take him. . . . But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is
engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure.
This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. For almost two centuries we have proved man’s capacity for self-government, but today we are told we must choose between a left and right or, as others suggest, a third alternative, a kind of safe middle ground. I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism; and regardless of their humanitarian purpose those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path.
Plutarch warned, “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.”
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.
Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.
The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.
Cures were developed for which there were no known diseases.
I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.
I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency — even if I'm in a
Cabinet meeting.
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very
close resemblance to the first.
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
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, subsidise it.
I sometimes wonder what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had to run them through a Democratic Legislature.
Their signs said make love, not war, but they didn't look like they could do either.
The government in Washington is spending some 7 million dollars every minute I talk to you. There's no connection between my talking and their spending, and if they'll stop spending, I'll stop talking.
Bureaucrats favor cutting red tape - lengthwise.
I know what it's like to pull the Republican lever for the first time, because I used to be a Democrat myself, and I can tell you it only hurts for a minute, and then it feels great.
Sometimes our right hand doesn't know what our far right hand is doing.
You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance.
We have a spin-off from our 'Star Wars' research. It's a helmet for me to wear at press conferences. All I do is push a button, and it shoots down incoming questions.
A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist.
Economists are people who see something that works in practice and wonder if it would work in theory.
Soon after Reagan was awoke, presidential aide Lyn Nofziger reported to Reagan,"you'll be happy to know that the government is running normally." Reagan replied w/o hesitation, "What makes you think I'd be happy about that."
I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.
One hundred nations in the UN have not agreed with us on just about everything
that's come before them, where we're involved, and it didn't upset my breakfast at all.
I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.
Believe me, you cannot create a desert, hand a person a cup of water, and call
that compassion. You cannot pour billions of dollars into make-work jobs while destroying the
economy that supports them and call that opportunity. And you cannot build up years of dependence on
government and dare call that hope.
Almost all the world's Constitutions are documents in which governments tell
the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the
people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free.
"It is said that Castro was making a speech to a large assembly. And he was going on at great length and then a voice out in the crowd said, 'peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks.' and he went on speaking and again the voice said, 'peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks,'" Mr. Reagan said. "And about the fourth time this happened, he stopped in his regular speech and he said, "the next time," he said, "I'm going to find out who that is and kick him all the way to Miami.' And everybody in the crowd said, "peanuts, popcorn, crackerjacks.'"
A commissar in the Soviet Union went out to one of those state collective farms, grabbed the first worker he came to and said, 'Comrade, how are the crops?' "'Oh,' he said, 'Comrade Commissar, if we could put the potatoes in one pile, they would reach the foot of God.'" "And the commissar said, 'This is the Soviet Union. There is no God.' and he said, 'That's all right, there are no potatoes.'
What are the four things wrong with the Soviet agriculture? Spring, Summer, autumn, and winter.
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children (America), the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.
And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
Books I've read:
'Ronald Reagan, a Life in Letters', various
'Dutch', Edmund Morris (biased)