Posted on 02/08/2003 12:55:57 AM PST by PsyOp
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reagan in his own words
BTTT!
More quotes in Reagan's memory--
"A great man's reach invariably extends beyond the battles he won or the buildings he raised, and can only be fully measured by the hearts he touched and the dreams he inspired. By that measure Ronald Reagan, America's 40th president, still lives -- in countless millions of us. At the pedestrian level of American politics, it is hard to find an active Republican today who does not carry in his or her mind a bit of secondhand Reagan magic. Thousands of leading conservative journalists, politicians, even academics, are in the business because of Mr. Reagan, or are better, more principled, more optimistic and more effective because Ronald Reagan lived and filled a vast political and human void. ...It is the magic of great men that, what is considered normal (even prosaic) after them, was considered implausible or impossible before they did it. Whether it was defeating tyranny, cutting taxes or honoring religious faith, Ronald Reagan opened the door for conservative governance and has made all that might yet be, possible." --The Washington Times.
"I think they broke the mold when they made Ronnie. He had absolutely no ego, and he was very comfortable in his own skin; therefore, he didn't feel he ever had to prove anything to anyone." --Nancy Reagan.
"In his last moment he taught me that there is nothing stronger than love between two people, two souls. It was the last thing he could do to show my mother how entwined their souls are... At the last moment when his breathing told us this was it, he opened his eyes and looked straight at my mother. Eyes that had not opened for days did, and they weren't chalky or vague. They were clear and blue and full of life. If a death can be lovely, his was." --Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan's daughter.
"Ronald Reagan loved the truth. We all do or say we do but for Reagan it was like fresh water, something he needed and wanted." -- Peggy Noonan.
"Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired. To have achieved so much against such odds and with such humor and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero." --Margaret Thatcher.
"Ronald Reagan was easily the greatest president of my lifetime -- and he will be regarded as one of the greatest leaders this country has ever had...a man of extraordinary vision, great compassion and resolute leadership. He brought down the Evil Empire and made the world safer for my children and theirs." --Lt. Col. Oliver North.
"He was hated for precisely the same reasons he was loved. He had convictions and made those without them look weak. ... He knew who he was before he came to office; he did not need the office to complete him." --Cal Thomas.
"Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead we changed a world." – Ronald Reagan.
"There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." – Ronald Reagan.
"The future belongs to the free." – Ronald Reagan.
"We defend freedom here or it is gone." – Ronald Reagan.
"To those who are fainthearted and unsure, I have this message: If you're afraid of the future, then get out of the way, stand aside. The people of this country are ready to move again." – Ronald Reagan.
"Trust but verify." – Ronald Reagan.
"Who can forget those so-called 'experts' who said our military buildup threatened a dangerous escalation of tensions? What kind of fool, they asked, would call the Soviet Union an 'Evil Empire'?" – Ronald Reagan.
"Don't be afraid to see what you see." – Ronald Reagan.
"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. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual." – Ronald Reagan.
"The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith." – Ronald Reagan.
"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress." – Ronald Reagan.
"Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" – Ronald Reagan.
"Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States." – Ronald Reagan.
"Regulations are like spores of a fungus -- they settle anywhere and everywhere and create more spores." – Ronald Reagan.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" – Ronald Reagan.
"I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves." – Ronald Reagan.
"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." – Ronald Reagan.
"Communism is neither an economic or a political system -- it is a form of insanity -- a temporary aberration which will one day disappear from the earth because it is contrary to human nature." – Ronald Reagan.
"The West won't contain Communism. It will transcend it. It will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written." – Ronald Reagan.
"Communism is neither an economic or a political system -- it is a form of insanity -- a temporary aberration which will one day disappear from the earth because it is contrary to human nature. I wonder how much more misery it will cause before it disappears." – Ronald Reagan.
"All great change in America begins at the dinner table." – Ronald Reagan.
"Who can forget those so-called 'experts' who said our military buildup threatened a dangerous escalation of tensions? What kind of fool, they asked, would call the Soviet Union an 'Evil Empire'?" – Ronald Reagan.
"T]he march of freedom and democracy ... will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people." – Ronald Reagan.
"There's no question I am an idealist, which is another way of saying I am an American." – Ronald Reagan.
"Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter -- and they're on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs -- with faith in themselves and faith in an idea -- who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They're individuals and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art and education. Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain our national life." – Ronald Reagan.
"Those who created our country -- the Founding Fathers and Mothers -- understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion. ... The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive." – Ronald Reagan.
"If children prayed together, would they not understand what they have in common, and would this not, indeed, bring them closer, and is this not to be desired? So, I submit to you that those who claim to be fighting for tolerance on this issue may not be tolerant at all. When John Kennedy was running for President in 1960, he said that his church would not dictate his Presidency any more than he would speak for his church. Just so, and proper. But John Kennedy was speaking in an America in which the role of religion -- and by that I mean the role of all churches -- was secure. Abortion was not a political issue. Prayer was not a political issue. The right of church schools to operate was not a political issue. And it was broadly acknowledged that religious leaders had a right and a duty to speak out on the issues of the day. They held a place of respect, and a politician who spoke to or of them with a lack of respect would not long survive in the political arena. It was acknowledged then that religion held a special place, occupied a special territory in the hearts of the citizenry. The climate has changed greatly since then. And since it has, it logically follows that religion needs defenders against those who care only for the interests of the state. ... The churches of America do not exist by the grace of the state; the churches of America are not mere citizens of the state. The churches of America exist apart; they have their own vantage point, their own authority. Religion is its own realm; it makes its own claims. We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions. I submit to you that the tolerant society is open to and encouraging of all religions. And this does not weaken us; it strengthens us. ... You know, if we look back through history to all those great civilizations, those great nations that rose up to even world dominance and then deteriorated, declined, and fell, we find they all had one thing in common. One of the significant forerunners of their fall was their turning away from their God. ... Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." – President Ronald Reagan, Prayer Breakfast, 1984.
"Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement..." – Ronald Reagan.
"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose." – 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.
"Status quo, you know, that is Latin for 'the mess we're in'." – Ronald Reagan.
"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." – Ronald Reagan.
"If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made." – Ronald Reagan.
"Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his." – Ronald Reagan.
"It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?" – Ronald Reagan.
"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.
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." – Ronald Reagan.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." – Ronald Reagan.
"I will not exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience." – Ronald Reagan.
"And I also remember something that Thomas Jefferson once said: 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that..." – Ronald Reagan.
"History's no easy subject. Even in my day it wasn't, and we had so much less of it to learn then." – Ronald Reagan.
"Honey, I forgot to duck." – Ronald Reagan.
"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program." – Ronald Reagan.
"I heard one presidential candidate say that what this country needed was a president for the nineties. I was set to run again. I thought he said a president IN his nineties." – Ronald Reagan.
"When you see all that rhetorical smoke billowing up from the Democrats, well, ladies and gentlemen, I'd follow the example of their nominee [Bill Clinton]: don't inhale." – Ronald Reagan.
"With the Iran thing occupying everyone's attention, I was thinking: Do you remember the flap when I said, 'We begin bombing in five minutes'? Remember when I fell asleep during my audience with the Pope? Remember Bitburg?... Boy, those were the good old days." – Ronald Reagan.
"Fellow Americans, here lies a graceful and a gallant man." --Vice President Dick Cheney eulogizing President Reagan on Wednesday evening.
"Reagan taught us all that gallantry is the compliment that deeds pay to character. It involves making the most of God's gifts, one on one, and one day at a time. It involves doing so with gracious humor, compassion and determined resolve to defend and protect the authentic American values." --Paul M. Rodriguez.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed unanimously (375 - 0) H. Res. 664, saying in part, "Whereas President Ronald Reagan reminded us that our great Nation was founded and built by people with great dreams and the courage to take great risks; Whereas President Reagan reminded his countrymen of the Nation's calling in world history: 'From our forefathers to our modern day immigrants, we've come from every corner of the earth, from every race and every ethnic background, and we've become a new breed in the world. We're Americans, and we have a rendezvous with destiny.'; Whereas President Reagan championed freedom and democracy throughout the world, bringing courage to millions of people suffering the bondage of tyranny and oppression; ...Whereas Ronald Reagan's eloquence united Americans in times of triumph and tragedy; ...Whereas President Reagan appealed to the best hopes of the American people, not their worst fears, and to their confidence rather than their doubts: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives ... expresses its deepest appreciation for the profound public service of President Ronald Reagan; ... [and] calls on the people of the United States to reflect on the record of President Reagan during this national period of remembrance and to remember always his encouraging words: 'We have every right to dream heroic dreams'...."
The Senate unanimously passed two similar measures. S. Res. 373 states, "Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow and deep regret the announcement of the death of the Honorable Ronald Wilson Reagan, a former President of the United States, and a former Governor of the State of California. Resolved, That in recognition of his illustrious statesmanship, his leadership in national and world affairs, his distinguished public service to his State and his Nation, and as a mark of respect to one who has held such eminent public station in life, the Presiding Officer of the Senate appoint a committee to consist of all the Members of the Senate to attend the funeral of the former President."
Only two senators did not vote for S. Res. 373: Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).
S. Res. 374 concludes, "Whereas President Reagan's steadfast opposition to Communism, his unshakeable resolve to defeat the 'Evil Empire', and his secure belief in government for and by the people, led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and victory in the Cold War; Whereas President Reagan's belief in freedom as a God-given right of all peoples led to a democratic revolution across Central America; and Whereas Ronald Wilson Reagan, father, husband, actor, and dedicated public servant, restored the pride, optimism and strength of the United States and earned the deep respect and affection of his fellow citizens: Now, therefore, be it: Resolved, That the Senate notes with deep sorrow and solemn mourning the death of Ronald Wilson Reagan. Resolved, That the Senate extends its heartfelt sympathy to the wife and family of President Reagan. Resolved, That the Senate commends the former President for his Presidency and its many accomplishments. Resolved, That the Senate calls on all the people of the United States to reflect on the record of the 40th President of the United States during this national period of remembrance."
"'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.' That's a catchy phrase but also misleading. Freedom fighters do not need to terrorize a population into submission. Freedom fighters target the military forces and the organized instruments of repression keeping dictatorial regimes in power. Freedom fighters struggle to liberate their citizens from oppression and to establish a form of government that reflects the will of the people... [O]ne has to be blind, ignorant, or simply unwilling to see the truth if he or she is unable to distinguish between those I just described and terrorists." —Ronald Reagan
"America was founded by men and women who shared a vision of the value of each and every individual. Our forebears strove to build a nation in which the dignity of every person was respected and the rights of all were secure. Our laws have sought to foster and protect human life at all its stages. Legal acceptance of abortion imperils this cherished tradition. By permitting the destruction of unborn children throughout the term of pregnancy, our laws have brought about an inestimable loss of human life and potential. Yet the tragedy of abortion extends beyond the loss of the nearly 17 million children who have been robbed of the gift of life. This tragedy is multifaceted -- inflicting emotional harm on women, denying prospective adoptive couples the joy of sharing their loving homes with children, and eroding respect for the most fundamental of rights, the right to life. No cause is more important than restoring respect for this right because the freedoms we hold so dear cannot endure as long as some lives are regarded as unworthy of protection. Nor can our commitment to defend the dignity of all persons survive if we remain indifferent to the destruction of 1.5 million children each year in the United States. ... If America is to remain what God, in His wisdom, intended for it to be -- a refuge, a safe haven for those seeking human rights -- then we must once again extend the most basic human right to the most vulnerable members of the human family." --Ronald Reagan
"We don't have inflation because the people are living too well. We have inflation because the government is living too well." — Ronald Reagan.
I like this one:
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. - President Ronald Reagan.
Cordially,
"The character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments. It has been determined by all the 'little' choices of years past—by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation, [which was] whispering the lie that 'it really doesn't matter.' It has been determined by all the day-to-day decisions made when life seemed easy and crises seemed far away—the decision that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness; habits of self-sacrifice or self-indulgence; habits of duty and honor and integrity—or dishonor and shame." — Ronald Reagan.
"The freedom of thought and action we Americans enjoy today seems as natural as the air we breathe. But there is a danger we may take this freedom for granted. We must never forget it was bought for us at a great price. The brave and resourceful Americans whose sacrifices gained our Independence and preserved it for more than 200 years against formidable foes have set an example of unflinching loyalty to the ideal of liberty and justice for all." — Ronald Reagan.
"[I]n commemorating fatherhood, we're also expressing a basic truth about America. What does fatherhood mean today in America? I guess the same as it always has. Fatherhood can sometimes be walking the floor at midnight with a baby that can't sleep. More likely, fatherhood is repairing a bicycle wheel for the umpteenth time, knowing that it won't last the afternoon. Fatherhood is guiding a youth through the wilderness of adolescence toward adulthood. Fatherhood is holding tight when all seems to be falling apart; and it's letting go when it is time to part. Fatherhood is long hours at the blast furnace or in the fields, behind the wheel or in front of a computer screen, working a 12-hour shift or doing a 6-month tour of duty. It's giving one's all, from the break of day to its end, on the job, in the house, but most of all in the heart." — Ronald Reagan.
"The answer to a government that's too big is to stop feeding its growth. Government spending has been growing faster than the economy itself. The massive national debt which we accumulated is the result of the government's high spending diet. Well, it's time to change the diet and to change it in the right way... Reducing the growth of spending, cutting marginal tax rates, providing relief from overregulation, and following a non-inflationary and predictable monetary policy are interwoven measures which will ensure that we have addressed each of the severe dislocations which threaten our economic future. These policies will make our economy stronger, and the stronger economy will balance the budget." — Ronald Reagan.
"Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with its row on row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom... Under one such marker lies a young man—Martin Treptow—who left his job in a small-town barbershop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, 'My Pledge,' he had written these words: 'America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone'." — Ronald Reagan.
“The specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and appeasement does not give you a choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. We are told that the problem is too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no easy answer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right, and this policy of accommodation asks us to accept the greatest possible immorality.” — Ronald Reagan.
“[I]t doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? Such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.” — Ronald Reagan.
"The Reagan philosophy is dead." - Charles "Chucky" Schumer, Democrat. 2007.
"The Reagan philosophy is dead." - Charles "Chucky" Schumer, Democrat. 2007.
"The Reagan philosophy is dead." - Charles "Chucky" Schumer, Democrat. 2007.
Marking.
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