Ronald Reagan Quotes

559 Sourced Quotes

For us to ignore by inaction the slaughter of American civilians and American soldiers, whether in nightclubs or airline terminals, is simply not in the American tradition. Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty.

Ronald Reagan
Generations hence, parents will take their children to these woods to show them how the land must have looked to the first Pilgrims and pioneers. And as Americans wander through these forests, climb these mountains, they will sense the love and majesty of the Creator of all of that.

Ronald Reagan
It is no coincidence that when the thugs tried to wrest control over Grenada, there were 30 Soviet advisors and hundreds of Cuban military and paramilitary forces on the island.

Ronald Reagan
We don't lump people by groups or special interests. And let me add, in the party of Lincoln there is no room for intolerance and not even a small corner for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind. Many people are welcome in our house, but not the bigots.

Ronald Reagan
If we miss this chance to make a fresh start, we may look back on this moment from some later vantage point and realize how much that failure cost us all.

Ronald Reagan
Simple fairness dictates that government must not raise taxes on families struggling to pay their bills.

Ronald Reagan
I was raised to believe that God has a plan for everyone and that seemingly random twists of fate are all a part of His plan.

Ronald Reagan
Today, we're taking a break from the concerns and the bustle of the work-a-day world. But we're also making a new beginning... Let us renew our faith that as free men and women we still have the power to better our lives, and let us resolve to face the challenges of the new year holding that conviction firmly in our hearts. That, after all, is our greatest strength and our greatest gift as Americans.

Ronald Reagan
My dream is to see the day when nuclear weapons will be banished from the face of the Earth.

Ronald Reagan
I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers... 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 for ourselves.

Ronald Reagan
With all this talk about the supposed strain in relations [with the Soviet Union], there is an inference that somehow it is our fault. But we didn't kill Russian civilians by shooting down a civilian airplane. We didn't attempt to conquer an adjacent country to ours. We didn't walk out on negotiations and refuse to give a date for when we would resume.

Ronald Reagan
The best social program is a productive job for anyone who's willing to work.

Ronald Reagan
Meaningful work, not welfare, is every American's hope, and we have a continuing responsibility to make those hopes a lasting reality.

Ronald Reagan
The founders of the United Nations expected that member nations would behave and vote as individuals after they had weighed the merits of an issue - rather like a great, global town meeting. The emergence of blocks and the polarization of the United Nations undermine all that this organization initially valued.

Ronald Reagan
We can't have it both ways. We can't expect God to protect us in a crisis and just leave Him over there on the shelf in our day-to-day living. I wonder if sometimes He isn't waiting for us to wake up, He isn't maybe running out of patience.

Ronald Reagan
Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on an immense reservoir of courage, character, and fortitude, that we are still blessed with heroes like those of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Man will continue his conquest of space. To reach out for new goals and ever-greater achievements, that is the way we shall commemorate our seven Challenger heroes.

Ronald Reagan
I can't help but believe that in the future we will see in the United States and throughout the Western world an increasing trend toward the next logical step, employee ownership. It is a path that befits a free people.

Ronald Reagan
There are those, of course, who claim we must give up freedom in exchange for economic progress. Well, pardon me, but anyone trying to sell you that line is no better than a three-card-trick man. One thing becoming more clear every day is that freedom and progress go hand in hand. Throughout the developing world, people are rejecting socialism because they see that it doesn't empower people, it impoverishes them.

Ronald Reagan
We've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion, but what's important.

Ronald Reagan
If we don't want to see the map of Central America covered in a sea of red, eventually lapping at our own borders, we must act now.

Ronald Reagan
I think the presidency is an institution over which you have temporary custody.

Ronald Reagan
For the eight years I was president I never let my dream of a nuclear-free world fade from my mind.

Ronald Reagan
Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day.

Ronald Reagan
The national Democratic leadership is going so far left, they've left America. Don't let them bury the American dream in their graveyard of gloom and envy.

Ronald Reagan
Wouldn't it be better for the human spirit and for the soul of this nation to encourage people to accept more responsibility to care for each other rather than leaving those tasks to paid bureaucrats.

Ronald Reagan
If we listen to our hearts, believe in ourselves, and pull together, nothing can stand in our way.

Ronald Reagan
I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.

Ronald Reagan
Someone asked me whether I was aware of all the people out there who were praying for the President. And I had to say, "Yes, I am. I've felt it. I believe in intercessory prayer." But I couldn't help but say to that questioner after he'd asked the question that - or at least say to them that if sometimes when he was praying he got a busy signal, it was just me in there ahead of him.

Ronald Reagan
Detente - isn't that what a farmer has with his turkey - until Thanksgiving?

Ronald Reagan
We can't build a safer world with honorable intentions and good will alone. Achieving the fundamental goals our nation seeks in world affairs - peace, human rights, economics progress national independence and international stability - means supporting our friends and defending our interests.

Ronald Reagan