Ronald Reagan, (1911-2004) 40th US President Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [31-60] of 73 Ronald Reagan quotesRonald Reagan QuotesRonald Reagan Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes We've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.~ Ronald Reagan Our federal tax system is, in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust and completely counterproductive, [it] reeks with injustice and is fundamentally un-American... it has earned a rebellion and it's time we rebelled.~ Ronald Reagan The taxpayer; that's someone who works for the federal government, but doesn´t have to take a civil service examination.~ Ronald Reagan There are many well-meaning people today who work at placing an economic floor beneath all of us so that no one shall exist below a certain level or standard of living, and certainly we don't quarrel with this. But look more closely and you may find that all too often these well-meaning people are building a ceiling above which no one shall be permitted to climb and between the two are pressing us all into conformity, into a mold of standardized mediocrity.~ 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 The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.~ Ronald Reagan Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.~ Ronald Reagan Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself. ... [I] hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.~ Ronald Reagan Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite.~ Ronald Reagan I think the best possible social program is a job.~ Ronald Reagan The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.~ Ronald Reagan You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.'~ Ronald Reagan There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.~ Ronald Reagan We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him. . . . But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure.~ Ronald Reagan Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets.~ Ronald Reagan The years ahead will be great ones for our country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization. The West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We will not bother to denounce it, we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.~ Ronald Reagan Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.~ 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 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 The classical Liberal, during the Revolutionary time, was a man who wanted less power for the king and more power for the people. He wanted people to have more say in the running of their lives and he wanted protection for the God-given rights of the people. He did not believe those rights were dispensations granted by the king to the people, he believed that he was born with them. Well, that today is the Conservative.~ Ronald Reagan Are you entitled to the fruits of your labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?~ Ronald Reagan Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community?~ Ronald Reagan Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.... We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.~ Ronald Reagan Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.~ Ronald Reagan When you start talking about government as 'we' instead of 'they,' you have been in office too long.~ Ronald Reagan History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.~ Ronald Reagan In an ironic sense, Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis -- a crisis where the demands of the economic order are colliding directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union.... [Communism will be] left on the ash heap of history.~ Ronald Reagan I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.~ Ronald Reagan Our coins bear the words 'In God We Trust'. We take the oath of office asking His help in keeping that oath. And we proclaim that we are a nation under God when we pledge allegiance to the flag. But we can't mention His name in a public school or even sing religious hymns that are nondenominational. Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.~ Ronald Reagan Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, 'What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.' But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.~ Ronald Reagan Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print