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Ronald Reagan

(1911-2004) 40th US President

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Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

– Ronald Reagan

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You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.

– Ronald Reagan

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I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers. Go ahead-make my day.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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My fellow Americans I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. (Comment while testing a microphone before a broadcast 11 Aug 84)

– Ronald Reagan

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People don't start wars, governments do.

– Ronald Reagan

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The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.

– Ronald Reagan

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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.

– Ronald Reagan

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I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

– Ronald Reagan

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I hope you're all republican.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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

– Ronald Reagan

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If it moves, tax it, if it keeps moving, regulate it, and if it stops moving, subsidize it !

– Ronald Reagan

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Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere.

– Ronald Reagan

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The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

– Ronald Reagan

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The thought of being president frightens me. I do not think I want the job.

– Ronald Reagan

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The war in Vietnam threatened to tear our society apart, and the political and philosophical disagreements that separated each side continue, to some extent. It's been said that these memorials reflect a hunger for healing.

– Ronald Reagan

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These young Americans sent a message to terrorists everywhere ... You can run but you can't hide. (On US pilots who captured four terrorists)

– Ronald Reagan

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This administration is totally colorblind.

– Ronald Reagan

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Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

– Ronald Reagan

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Where would this country be without this great land of ours?

– Ronald Reagan

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While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

– Ronald Reagan

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You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, 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.

– Ronald Reagan

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You know, it was only a generation ago that actors couldn't be buried in the churchyard.

– Ronald Reagan

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Die-hard conservatives thought that if I couldn't get everything I asked for, I should jump off the cliff with the flag flying-go down in flames. No, if I can get 70 or 80 percent of what it is I'm trying to get ... I'll take that and then continue to try to get the rest in the future.

– Ronald Reagan

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Even Albert Einstein reportedly needed help on his 1040 form.

– Ronald Reagan

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Qaddafi counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong.

– Ronald Reagan

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Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.

– Ronald Reagan

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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. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbours.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine. And believe me, you are no Thomas Jefferson. (at 1992 Republican party convention, referring to Bill Clinton)

– Ronald Reagan

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As long as there are guns, the individual that wants a gun for a crime is going to have one and going to get it. The only person who's going to be penalized and have difficulty is the law-abiding citizen, who then cannot have it if he wants protection-the protection of a weapon in his home, for home protection.

– Ronald Reagan

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I believe Moses was 80 when God first commissioned him for public service.

– Ronald Reagan

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To sit back hoping that someday, someway, 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

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We seek a constitutional amendment to permit voluntary school prayer. God should never have been expelled from America's classrooms in the first place.

– Ronald Reagan

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Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15.

– Ronald Reagan

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You can accomplish much if you don't care who gets the credit.

– Ronald Reagan

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Isn't it strange that ... people build walls to keep an enemy out, and there's only one part of the world and one philosophy where they have to build walls to keep their people in.

– Ronald Reagan

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I will veto again and again until spending is brought under control.

– Ronald Reagan

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My belief has always been ... that wherever in this land any individual's constitutional rights are being unjustly denied, it is the obligation of the federal government-at point of bayonet if necessary-to restore that individual's constitutional rights.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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The freedom fighters of Nicaragua ... are the moral equal of our Founding Fathers and the brave men and women of the French Resistance.

– Ronald Reagan

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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, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

– Ronald Reagan

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Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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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.

– Ronald Reagan

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America's view of apartheid is simple and straightforward We believe it is wrong. We condemn it. And we are united in hoping for the day when apartheid will be no more.

– Ronald Reagan

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I do not feel betrayed. ... He has a fine record. He is a national hero. (On Oliver L North's work)

– Ronald Reagan

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Facts are stupid things.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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I have come to the conclusion that the 22nd Amendment limiting the presidency to two terms was a mistake. Shouldn't the people have the right to vote for someone as many times as they want to vote for him

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

– Ronald Reagan

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They don't worship at the altar of forced busing and mandatory quotas. They don't believe you can remedy past discrimination by mandating new discrimination. (Defending his nominees for Civil Rights Commission)

– Ronald Reagan

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Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.

– Ronald Reagan

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Damn it, Pierre, what do you want me to do We'll go sit with empty chairs to get those guys back to the table. (To Pierre Trudeau, prime minister of Canada)

– Ronald Reagan

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Democracy is not a fragile flower still it needs cultivating.

– Ronald Reagan

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I just don't think it's good for us to be run out of town. (Refusing to cancel Secretary of State visit to Moscow)

– Ronald Reagan

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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. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbours.

– Ronald Reagan

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The distance between the present system and our proposal is like comparing the distance between a Model T and the space shuttle. And I should know I've seen both.

– Ronald Reagan

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The little dictator who went to Moscow in his green fatigues to receive a bear hug did not forsake the doctrine of Lenin when he returned to the West and appeared in a two-piece suit. (On Daniel Ortega Saavedra)

– Ronald Reagan

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Anyone that's ever had their kitchen done over knows that it never gets done as soon as you wish it would.

– Ronald Reagan

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As a heterosexual ballet dancer, you develop a thick skin.

– Ronald Reagan

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As we celebrate Thanksgiving ... we should ask what we can do as individuals to demonstrate our gratitude to God for all He has done. Such reflection can only add to the significance of this precious day of remembrance. Let us recommit ourselves to that devotion to God and family that has played such an important role in making this a great Nation, and which will be needed as a source of strength if we are to remain a great people.

– Ronald Reagan

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Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.

– Ronald Reagan

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Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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I was alarmed at my doctor's report He said I was sound as a dollar.

– Ronald Reagan

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I'll be like Scarlett O'Hara-I'll think about it tomorrow.

– Ronald Reagan

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I've often wondered how some people in positions of this kind ... manage without having had any acting experience.

– Ronald Reagan

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If I had as much make-up on as he did, I'd have looked younger, too.

– Ronald Reagan

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If I thought there was some reason to be concerned about them, I wouldn't be sleeping in this house tonight. (When asked about continued presence of Soviet nuclear submarines along US coastlines)

– Ronald Reagan

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If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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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

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It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. ... We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen, and loving them, not reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they are sick, and provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory? ... We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer.

– Ronald Reagan

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It's difficult to see that people are starving in this country because food isn't available.(1986)

– Ronald Reagan

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Most tax revisions didn't improve the system, they made it more like Washington itself complicated, unfair, cluttered with gobbledygook and loopholes designed for those with the power and influence to hire high-priced legal and tax advisers.

– Ronald Reagan

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My fellow Americans, I must speak to you tonight about a mounting danger in Central America that threatens the security of the United States. This danger will not go away it will grow worse, much worse, if we fail to take action now.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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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

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Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. (Quoting Churchill)

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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Shouldn't someone tag Mr Kennedy's bold new imaginative program with its proper age Under the tousled boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx-first launched a century ago. There is nothing new in the idea of a government being Big Brother.

– Ronald Reagan

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Some of your countrymen were unable to distinguish between their native dislike for war and the stainless patriotism of those who suffered its scars. But there has been a rethinking and now we can say to you, and say as a nation, thank you for your courage.

– Ronald Reagan

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Some say it will bring war to the heavens, but its purpose is to deter war, in the heavens and on earth.

– Ronald Reagan

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Someone must stand up to those who say, Here's the key, there's the Treasury, just take as many of those hard-earned tax dollars as you want.

– Ronald Reagan

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The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

– Ronald Reagan

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The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

– Ronald Reagan

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The Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted-because everyone would join that party.

– Ronald Reagan

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The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.

– Ronald Reagan

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The vote on the Peacekeeper is also a vote on Geneva. Rejecting the Peacekeeper will knock the legs out from under the negotiating table. (On importance of the MX missile)

– Ronald Reagan

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The White House is the leakiest place I've ever been in. (On special measures to ensure secrecy of plans to bomb Libya)

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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There were so many candidates on the platform that there were not enough promises to go around.

– Ronald Reagan

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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

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Today we have done what we had to do. If necessary, we shall do it again.

– Ronald Reagan

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Tonight we are launching an effort which holds the promise of changing the course of human history.

– Ronald Reagan

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Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.

– Ronald Reagan

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We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.

– Ronald Reagan

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We have the means to change the laws we find unjust or onerous. We cannot, as citizens, pick and choose the laws we will or will not obey. (On dismissing 12,000 striking air traffic controllers)

– Ronald Reagan

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We know that this mad dog of the Middle East has a goal of a world revolution. (On Muammar Qaddafi of Libya)

– Ronald Reagan

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We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

– Ronald Reagan

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Well-meaning Americans in the name of freedom have taken freedom away. For the sake of religious tolerance, they’ve forbidden religious practice.

– Ronald Reagan

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With our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today. ... we will achieve our destiny to be as a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see.

– Ronald Reagan

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Quotes from the news wire:

No one I know voted for him.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on FOX News 2 years ago

We'll know in about 35 years, won't we ?

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 2 years ago

( I) n my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace -- a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 4 years ago

Parents cry out for help, many through letters to me, but a president can only do so much.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on FOX News 5 years ago

Parents cry out for help, many through letters to me. For example, I learned about Jonelle Matthews of Greeley, Colorado, who would have celebrated a happy 13th birthday with her family just last month, letters like these touch us deeply, and we've tried our best to help. Last June we opened the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which runs a toll-free hotline and gives other aid as well. But a President can only do so much. So, today I'd like to ask for your help.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 5 years ago

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.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 5 years ago

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc, these are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 5 years ago

The budget request that is now before the Congress has been trimmed to the limits of safety. Further deep cuts can not be made without seriously endangering the security of the Nation. The choice is up to the men and women you've elected to the Congress, and that means the choice is up to you.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 6 years ago

Billy Graham is an American who lives first and always for his fellow citizens. In honoring him, we give thanks for God's greatest spiritual gifts—faith, hope, and love.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on FOX News 6 years ago

I'm 45 years old, i have never once had the opportunity to go to a general election ballot and vote for a Reaganite on the ballot. We are inches away from doing that right here.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 8 years ago

I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 9 years ago

This is the issue of this election : 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 ourselves.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 9 years ago

Part of it is convincing the American people they need to try a new path and part of it is being stubborn in pushing through Matt Schlapp policy proposals.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 9 years ago

Ronald Reagan said to trust and verify, and that’s what we’re going to do.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on FOX News 9 years ago

Our commitment to free trade is undiminished, we will vigorously pursue our policy of promoting free and open markets in this country and around the world.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on FOX News 9 years ago

I think people have a need to feel good about the country they live in, but what's happening, I think, is that that need -- which is a good thing -- is getting manipulated and exploited.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on CNN 9 years ago

I think he has become very wily, in a positive way.

– Ronald Reagan

Found on FOX News 10 years ago

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