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.”

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God. ”

“Life is one grand sweet song so start the music”

“I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

“There are no such things as limits to growth, because thereare no limits to the human capacity for intelligence,imagination, and wonder.”

“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”

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

“I couldn t help but say to Mr. Gorbachev just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another planet. We d find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this earth together”

“Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.”

“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!”

“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”

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

“They don't subscribe to our sense of morality; they don't believe in an afterlife; they don't believe in a God or religion. And the only morality they recognize, therefore, is what will advance the cause or socialism.”

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

“Please tell me you're Republicans.”

“I heard one presidential candidate say that what this country needed was a president for the nineties. I was set to run again. I thought he said a president IN his nineties.”

“Since I came to the White House, I've gotten two hearing aids, had a colon operation, a prostate operation, skin cancer, and I've been shot...damn thing is, I've never felt better.”

“I do not want to go back to the past; I want to go back to the past way of facing the future.”

“The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.”

“Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem.”

“The miracle of life is given by One greater than ourselves, but once given, each life is ours to nurture and preserve, to foster, not only for today's world but for a better one to come. There is no purpose more noble than for us to sustain and celebrate life in a turbulent world, and that is what we must do now. We have no higher duty, no greater cause as humans. Life and the preservation of freedom to live it in dignity is what we are on this Earth to do. Everything we work to achieve must seek that end so that some day our prime ministers, our premiers, our presidents, and our general secretaries will talk not of war and peace, but only of peace.”

“If there's one observation that rings true in today's changing world, it is that freedom and peace go hand in hand.”

“Someday, the realm of liberty and justice will encompass the planet. Freedom is not just the birthright of the few, it is the God-given right of all His children, in every country. It won't come by conquest. It will come, because freedom is right and freedom works. It will come, because cooperation and good will among free people will carry the day.”

“Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way”

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

“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.”

“We do not deny any nation's legitimate interest in security. But protecting the security of one nation by robbing another of its national independence and national traditions is not legitimate. In the long run, it is not even secure.”

“Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root... Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in 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, the ideals to which we are dedicated.”

“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.”

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

“A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.”

“Sometimes when I'm faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook.”

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

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

“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.”

“A picture is worth 1,000 denials.”

“These young Americans sent a message to terrorists everywhere. . . . You can run but you can't hide.”

“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'.”

“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.”

“Socialists ignore the side of man that is the spirit. They can provide you shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you're ill, all the things guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we also dream.”

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

“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”

“Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”

“When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”

“Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini's success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.”

“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.”

“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”

“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”