The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

My Favorite Quotes of Ronald Reagan

“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Almost all the worlds' 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.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“America was founded by people who believe that God was their rock of safety.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“America will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our Creator is denied to the unborn.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“As government expands, liberty contracts.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Because you won't get gun control by disarming law abiding citizens. There's only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up, and if you don't actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Either you will control your government, or government will control you.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.”
 - 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

“Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem. ... Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. 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. If it stops moving, subsidize it. ... The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives”

“Here you discover that so long as books are kept open, then minds can never be closed.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“How can we love our country and not love our countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they’re sick, and provide an opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory?”
 - 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 cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“I don’t 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.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“I have left orders to be awakened at any time during a 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 hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“I was not a great communicator, but I communicated great things.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“I’ve heard that hard work never killed anyone, but I say why take the chance?”
 - Ronald Reagan

“If freedom, democracy, and the rights of man are to be preserved through the ages, free men and women must accept the responsibilities that go with their freedoms.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“If history teaches anything, it teaches that self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.”
 - 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 lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“If you think you can – you can!”
 - 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 hard, when you're up to your armpits in alligators, to remember you came here to drain the swamp.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“It's not that liberals aren't smart, it's just that so much of what they know isn't so.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Just think how happy you’d be if you lost everything you have right now & then got it back.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.”
 - 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

“Never let the things you can’t do, stop you from doing what you can.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine.”
 - 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

“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“Tax increases don’t eliminate deficits they increase govt. spending.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."“
 - 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 such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“There can be no freedom without order, and there is no order without virtue.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“We could say the government spend like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors, because the sailors are spending their own money.”
 - Ronald Reagan

“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.”
 - 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 measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”

 - 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

“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery.”
 - Ronald Reagan

We must never remain silent in the face of bigotry. We must condemn those who seek to divide us. In all quarters and at all times, we must teach tolerance and denounce racism, anti-Semitism and all ethnic or religious bigotry wherever they exist as unacceptable evils. We have no place for haters in America -- none, whatsoever.”
 - Ronald Reagan