Today, Feb. 6, 2011, would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, is still the president who (twenty-three years after leaving office and more than six years after his death) engenders the strongest pro and con opinions regarding his presidency.
His admirers believe that (among other things) he:
-fixed the economy.
-fixed the military.
-broke the Soviet Union.
His detractors believe that (among other things) he:
-caused the deficit and the mindset that has allowed it to grow until today.
-recklessly deregulated industries, which later resulted in crises that required multi-billion dollar cleanups.
-didn’t devote nearly enough resources to the AIDS and drug epidemics.
(full disclosure – I’m firmly in the “Pro-Reagan” camp - icot)
Here are some famous and less famous Ronald Reagan quotes, painstakingly assembled by …someone else. I Googled ‘em.
Enjoy.
A people free to choose will always choose peace.
A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?
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.
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
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.
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
Don't be afraid to see what you see.
Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
Facts are stubborn things.
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.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under G-d is acknowledged.
Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.
Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
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, subsidize it.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
How can a president not be an actor?
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.
I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.
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.
I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
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.
I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.
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'.
I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.
If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.
If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under G-d, then we will be a nation gone under.
If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.
Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.
Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.
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.
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
It's difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn't available.
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.
It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
Latinos are Republican. They just don't know it yet.
Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.
Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.
Man is not free unless government is limited.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.
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.
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!
No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
One picture is worth 1,000 denials.
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
People do not make wars; governments do.
Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
Politics is just like show business. You have a [heck] of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a [heck] of a close.
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in'.
Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.
There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.
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.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
Trust, but verify.
Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.
Violence has been Nicaragua's most important export to the world.
We are never defeated unless we give up on G-d.
We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.
We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
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.
We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.
We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.
Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
Without G-d, democracy will not and cannot long endure.
You can tell alot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.
==================================
On February 6, 1989, Chris Gueffroy was shot to death as he attempted to escape from East to West Berlin over the wall that Reagan had urged Gorbachev to tear down.
Gueffroy was the last person killed by the East German border guards before the wall was, indeed, torn down.
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