Classic Reagan Quotes
"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."
Annual meeting of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, March 30, 1961
"The West won't contain communism. It will transcend communism. It will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written."
Commencement Address, University of Notre Dame, May 17, 1981
"In an ironic sense, Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West but in the home of Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union. It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying freedom and human dignity to its citizens."
Speech to the British Parliament, London, June 8, 1982
"I have seen the rise and fall of Nazi tyranny, the subsequent cold war and the nuclear nightmare that for fifty years haunted the dreams of children everywhere. During that time my generation defeated totalitarianism. As a result, your world is poised for better tomorrows. What will you do on your journey?"
Oxford Union Society, Oxford, England, December 4, 1992
"I hope that when you're my age you'll 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."
Remarks to students at St. John's University, New York, March 28, 1985
"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life. In 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 heart to get here."
Farewell Address to the Nation, January 11, 1989
"Excellence demands competition. Without a race there can be no champion, no records broken, no excellence - in education or in any other walk of life."
Remarks to National Catholic Education Association, Chicago, April 15, 1982
"A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough."
Address to Cambridge Union Society, Cambridge, England, December 5, 1990
"It's hard when you're up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp."
Remarks at a White House reception for women appointees of the administration, February 10, 1982
"Some may try and tell us that this is the end of an era. But what they overlook is that in America, every day is a new beginning. For this is the land that has never become, but is always in the act of becoming."
Presidential Medal of Freedom Ceremony, the White House, January 13, 1993
"A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."
Televised Address on behalf of Barry Goldwater, October 27, 1964
"We in government should learn to look at our country with the eyes of entrepreneurs, seeing possibilities where others see only problems."
Radio Address to the Nation on Economic Growth, January 26, 1985
"We must always ask: is government working to liberate and empower the individual? Is it creating incentives for people to produce, save, invest and profit from legitimate risks and honest toil? Or does it seek to compel, command and coerce people into submission and dependence?"
Remarks at World Affairs Council, Philadelphia, October 15, 1981
"Our policies have concentrated on rationing scarcity rather than creating plenty. As a result our economy has stagnated. But those days are ending."
Remarks to National League of Cities in Los Angeles, November 29, 1982
"The government's view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases. It if moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
Remarks to National White House Conference on Small Business, August 15, 1986
"The best social program is a productive job for anyone who's willing to work."
Remarks at businessmen's luncheon, Baltimore, Maryland, July 13, 1982
"Government is like a baby. It is an alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and a no sense of responsibility at the other."
Remarks before Joint Session of the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa, March 11, 1981
"I've always believed that we are, each of us, put here for a reason, that there is a plan, somehow a divine plan for all of us."
Remarks at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, February 4, 1982