Top 10 Greatest Quips from Ronald Reagan

Human Events ^ | 1/20/05

[rhema]

10. "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." —Remarks at a business conference, Los Angeles, March 2, 1977

9. "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans." —The Observer, March 29, 1981

8. “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." —Circa 1988

7. "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting." —Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

6. "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." —Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

5. "The 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." —Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business, August 15, 1986

4. “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” —Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

3. "All great change in America begins at the dinner table." —Farewell Address to the Nation, The White House, January 11, 1989

2. "I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born." —The New York Times, September 22, 1980

1. "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." — First Inaugural Address, January 21, 1981

[BluesDuke]

You know, in a few months I'm going to be out of work, and I thought I might as well audition.

---To Harry Caray, in the Wrigley Field broadcast booth, in the final months of his presidency . . . an occasion on which Mr. Reagan threw out the day's ceremonial first pitch and did a charming inning and a half of play-by-play, returning to his real roots as a Chicago Cubs broadcaster in the 1930s, for Iowa WHO. (In fact, a 1936 poll by The Sporting News named Mr. Reagan the fourth most popular baseball announcer)

[ohioWfan]

Also during the debates........the quote about age not being an issue, and then the quip about Mondale's being too young?? Do you have it?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

IMO, GWB had the chance to equal or exceed Reagan's accomplishments. I just don't understand why he doesn't fight for some of the ideas he believes in, such as SS reform, ownership society, and tax reform.

I'm definetly not a Bush hater but I just think he's underachieved in certain areas.

[apackof2]

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."

"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."

- Ronald Reagan

[scott7278]

He was smarter than the elite gave him credit for. He realized that the Soviet Union could not stand, was in fact crumbling, and would soon be relegated to the "ashbin of history."

[RWR8189]

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.

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them -- this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

Speech about the Challenger disaster, January 28, 1986

[ErnBatavia]

....I sure do miss this great man....

Ditto; this spring wifey and I are going to choose a nice, quiet weekday and head in to the Library (haven't been since a year or so before he died) to revisit and see the Air Force Once pavilion.

[apackof2]

Quote from a "Bible-thumper"

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

Ronald Reagan

[Indy Pendance]

I learned something from past readings of historical presidents. A great president only focuses on 3-4 major issues throughtout his presidency, whether one or two terms. Any more than that, he's ineffective acheicing any success in any area. Reagan's focus was communism. Bush's focus is terrorism. Clinton was all over the map, GHWB had no focus, etc.

[ErnBatavia]

"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."

A heavy bronze plaque with that inscription should be delivered personally to each and every 'Rat senator and congressrat.

[RandallFlagg]

Thank you for placing this on top of "Breaking."

[FairOpinion]

Ronald Reagan on the importance of political compromise(in his own words)
An American Life (his autobiography) | 8/7/03 | Ronald Reagan


"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it.

"Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.

"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.'

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/960104/posts

[EmilyGeiger]

I was fixing to ping you when I noticed OhioWfan beat me to it!:) Great post.

[RWR8189]

The other day, someone told me the difference between a democracy and a people's democracy. It's the same difference between a jacket and a straitjacket.

-Ronald Reagan

[Christopher Lincoln]

"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."

Worth repeating.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

God Bless President Reagan. I remember my Dad once saying that President Reagan needs to be added to Mt. Rushmore. I now concur.

As an Gen-Xer, I grew up during the Reagan years and fondly remember those times. (Cue the synth-heavy 80s music)

[Cowboy Bob]

Reagan to Carter: "There you go again."

[RWR8189]

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

-Ronald Reagan
October 27, 1964

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I concur. Bush is to terrorism as Reagan was to communism.

[Kimmers]

I bought that CD after I saw the movie and I cannot get through THE MANSIONS OF THE LORD without crying...it touches my soul and what a fitting tribute to such a great man....thank you