Ronald Reagan Quotes
“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”
The New Republic (16 December 1981) ; as cited in War and Conflict Quotations https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1476611483, eds. Michael & Jean Thomsett, McFarland (1997), p. 105
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Speech to the House of Commons (8 June 1982) http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/60882a.htm
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Context: From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none — not one regime — has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.... If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.... 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.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
Address to the annual meeting of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (30 March 1961)
Later variant: Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.
California Gubernatorial Inauguration Speech http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/govspeech/01051967a.htm (5 January 1967)
1960s
Context: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on 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.
Address to Republican National Convention http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/081588b.htm. (15 August 1988)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Variant: Facts are stupid things — stubborn things, I should say.
Time (17 May 1976); Reagan adviser Jude Wanniski has indicated http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/10-05-99.html that, in 1933, New Dealers as well as much of the world admired Mussolini’s success in avoiding the Great Depression
1970s
This was a signature phrase of Ronald Reagan — he used it dozens of times in public, although he was not the first person known to use it. When Reagan used this phrase, he was usually discussing relations with the Soviet Union and he almost always presented it as a translation of the Russian proverb "doveriai, no proveriai". See also Trust, but verify at Wikipedia.
Misattributed
Variant: Trust, but Verify.
“The simple truth is, 'I don't remember — period.”
responding to a question about when he authorized arms shipments to Iran, testimony to the Tower Commission (2 February 1987)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
“Liberals fought poverty and poverty won.”
As quoted in The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (2004) by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, p. 10
Post-presidency (1989–2004)
“I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war [in Vietnam] than the people have been told.”
As quoted in Los Angeles Times (16 October 1967)
1960s
“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”
As quoted in Burlington Free Press [Vermont] (15 February 1980)
1980s
Republican National Convention http://65.126.3.86/reagan/html/reagan08_17_92.shtml (17 August 1992)
Post-presidency (1989–2004)
1960s, A Time for Choosing (1964)
I will continue to support every effort to restore that protection including the Hyde-Jepsen respect life bill. I've asked for your all-out commitment, for the mighty power of your prayers, so that together we can convince our fellow countrymen that America should, can, and will preserve God's greatest gift.
Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Religious Broadcasters (30 January 1984) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=40394 · YouTube - Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Religious Broadcasters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Elph9CfsKs
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (1961 LP)
1960s
At the University of Southern California (February 6, 1989) when asked his opinion on gun control after the January 17, 1989 Cleveland Elementary School shooting that killed five schoolchildren in Stockton ([Becklund, Laurie, `Saddled Up' Reagan Vows to Speak on Issues, Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1989, 1]).
Post-presidency (1989–2004)
Cited to a Reagan diary entry in 1986, but actually from a parody written by Michael Kinsley in June 2007.
Misattributed
As quoted in The Fresno Bee (10 October 1965)
1960s
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
Regarding his friend Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter, in Where's the Rest of Me? (1965)
1960s
Letter to Majority Leader Howard Baker http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/CPC_Reagan_Letter.pdf, urging an increase in public debt ceiling (16 November 1983)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Speech at 1994 Gala for 83rd Birthday http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/rr40/speeches/gala_speech.htm (3 February 1994)
Post-presidency (1989–2004)
“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means.”
"Address at Commencement Exercises at Eureka College in Illinois," May 9, 1982. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=42501
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
White House diary (11 February 1981) as quoted in "Reagan's diaries to be published", BBC News (2 May 2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6614077.stm
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
As quoted in The Los Angeles Times (20 October 1965)
1960s
Presidential debate (28 October 1980) http://www.juntosociety.com/pres_debates/carterreagan.html
1980s
1960 Letter from Reagan to Richard Nixon, As quoted in The New York Times (27 October 1984) http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/27/us/on-the-record-text-of-1960-reagan-letter.html
1960s
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
Radio Address to the Nation on Solidarity and United States Relations With Poland http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43110#axzz1Go825Y2t (1982-10-09). Compare with an earlier Reagan speech: "... where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost. They remind us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction." Labor Day Speech at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey, September 1, 1980 http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/9.1.80.html
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
State of the Union address http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/20486a.htm, , quoted in [1986-03-05, Michael Kilian, Hypersonic flight just a hyperbolic Reagan rhapsody, The Evening Independent, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19860305&id=bmJQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t1kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4836,1112899]
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Response to the Frost-Nixon interviews on the Watergate scandal, UPI (21 May 1977)
1970s
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
[Conservatives betrayed: how George W. Bush and other big government republicans hijacked the Conservative cause, Viguerie, Richard A., Bonus Books, 978-1-56625-285-0, 43]
Attributed
Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine (1961 LP)
1960s
Republican National Convention http://65.126.3.86/reagan/html/reagan08_17_92.shtml (17 August 1992)
Post-presidency (1989–2004)
Interview published in Reason (1 July 1975)
1970s
“I am paying for this microphone!”
At a Republican primary debate in Nashua, New Hampshire (23 February 1980). The moderator had ordered the soundman to turn off Reagan's microphone, as Reagan was about to explain that as his campaign was paying for the debate which had originally been arranged by the Nashua Telegraph and that he had invited Bob Dole, Howard Baker, John B. Anderson, and Phil Crane, to be in it as well.
Video footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO2_49TycdE
1980s
Official Announcement http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/intent.asp of being a candidate for U.S. President (13 November 1979)
1970s
Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals (8 March 1983)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
California Legislature Stunned By Invasion Of Armed "Black Panthers" https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19670503&id=ClcmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZP8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1072,5010951&hl=en, Gettysburg Times (3 May 1967)
1960s
“If you read the letter, you will find there is nothing wrong with it.”
Commenting on a letter that Reagan had written to Richard Nixon in 1960 regarding John F. Kennedy, as quoted in The New York Times (27 October 1984). The letter to Nixon said: "Unfortunately, he is a powerful speaker with an appeal to the emotions. He leaves little doubt that his idea of the 'challenging new world' is one in which the Federal Government will grow bigger and do more and of course spend more....One last thought — shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's bold new imaginative program with its proper age? Under the tousled boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx — first launched a century ago. There is nothing new in the idea of a Government being Big Brother to us all. Hitler called his 'State Socialism' and way before him it was 'benevolent monarchy.'"
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Speech on Project Economic Justice http://www.cesj.org/about-cesj-in-brief/history-accomplishments/pres-reagans-speech-on-project-economic-justice/ (The White House, 3 August 1987)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)