"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."
"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."
"We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free."
Normandy, France, June 6, 1984
"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest."
Normandy, France, June 6, 1984
"It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government." This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. 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."
Address to the nation, October 27, 1964
"Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born."
"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."
"I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."
"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
"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."
"There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder."
"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."
"I hope you're all Republicans."
To surgeons as he entered the operating room, March 30, 1981
"Government has an important role in helping develop a country's economic foundation. But the critical test is whether government is genuinely working to liberate individuals by creating incentives to work, save, invest, and succeed."
October 30, 1981
"Government is the people's business and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid."
Address to the New York City Partnership Association, January 14, 1982
"The poet called Miss Liberty's torch, "the lamp beside the golden door." Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you really know why we're here tonight.
The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise every opportunity is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America.
Her heart is full; her torch is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the eighties unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed.
In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is."
RNC speech, August 23, 1984
"We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all."
Farewell Address to the Nation, January 20th, 1989
