RR in his own words

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

We've heard a great deal about Republican "fat cats," and how the Republicans are the party of big contributions. 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 have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.
-- Ronald Reagan

Taxpayer: that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
-- Ronald Reagan

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.
-- Ronald Reagan

Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.
-- Ronald Reagan

The United States remains the last best hope for a mankind plagued by tyranny and deprivation. America is no stronger than its people - and that means you and me. Well, I believe in you, and I believe that if we work together then one day we will say, ``We fought the good fight. We finished the race We kept the faith. And to our children and our children's children we can say, ``We did all that could be done in the brief time that was given to us here on earth
-- Ronald Reagan

Whatever time I've got left now belongs to the Big Fella Upstairs.
-- Ronald Reagan
(spoke these words while recovering from gunshot wounds that almost took his life while serving as President).

Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.
-- 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

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

"We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief.

All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions.

I submit to you that the tolerant society is open to and encouraging of all religions. And this does not weaken us; it strengthens us, it makes us strong. You know, if we look back through history to all those great civilizations, those great nations that rose up to even world dominance and then deteriorated, declined, and fell, we find they all had one thing in common. One of the significant forerunners of their fall was their turning away from their God or gods.

Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. If I could just make a personal statement of my own -- in these 3 1/2 years I have understood and known better than ever before the words of Lincoln, when he said that he would be the greatest fool on this footstool called Earth if he ever thought that for one moment he could perform the duties of that office without help from One who is stronger than all.
-- Ronald Reagan
(from an address to the University of South Carolina, Columbia, September 20, 1983)

I thank you, thank you for inviting us here today. Thank you for your kindness and your patience. May God keep you, and may we, all of us, keep God."
-- Ronald Reagan
Remarks at an Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast in Dallas, Texas
August 23, 1984

Why should we be frightened? No people who have ever lived on this earth have fought harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done more to advance the dignity of man than the living Americans, those Americans living in this land today.
-- Ronald Reagan

I'm convinced more than ever that man finds liberation only when he binds himself to God and commits himself to his fellow man.
-- Ronald Reagan

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
-- Ronald Reagan - 40th President of the United States of America Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate
West Berlin, Germany
June 12, 1987

"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."

-- Ronald Wilson Reagan