I was not a great communicator, but I communicated great things.

Sometimes when I’m faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him...

We built it, we paid for it, it’s ours, and we’re going to keep it.

It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of human history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens.

Summer’s here, temperatures are rising and tempers will really rise if Congress doesn’t pass an energy bill,

Some of your countrymen were unable to distinguish between their native dislike for war and the stainless patriotism of those who suffered its scars. But there has been a rethinking [and] now we can say...

Poverty is a career for lot’s of well paid people

We think there is a parallel between the Federal involvement in education and the decline in quality over recent years.

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! (Speech near the Berlin Wall, 1987)

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...

I’m not smart enough to lie

The very key to our success has been our ability, foremost among nations, to preserve our lasting values by making change work for us rather than against us.

My years in your service will always be very special to me. The inspiration you have given me will burn brightly in my heart long after I have left the lights of the White House...

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...

Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?

Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom...

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.

What makes him think a middle aged actor [Clint Eastwood], who’s played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?

Every dollar the Federal Government does not take from us, every decision it does not make for us will make our economy stronger, our lives more abundant, our future more free.

Democracy is less a system of government than it is a system to keep government limited, unintrusive; a system of constraints on power to keep politics and government secondary to the important things in life,...

I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. It was set here and the price of...

Tonight we are launching an effort which holds the promise of changing the course of human history.

Trust the people — that is the crucial lesson of history.

I like photographers you don’t ask questions.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

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

Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way

There is no humanity or charity in destroying self-reliance, dignity, and self-respect.

Excellence does not begin in Washington.

I’ve often wondered, what if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by a greater power from outer space from another planet — wouldn’t we all of a sudden find that...

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US congress

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So we cut the people’s tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before.”

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

I’ve often wondered how some people in positions of this kind . . . manage without having had any acting experience.

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

I couldn’t help but say to [Mr. Gorbachev], just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another...

We ought to take a serious look and see if we haven’t interfered with the democratic rights of the people.

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...

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

I don’t believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.

Well, let me tell you something; I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine and Governor. . . . You’re no Thomas Jefferson!

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.

Anyone that’s ever had their kitchen done over knows that it never gets done as soon as you wish it would.

It is time to realize we are too great a nation for small dreams. We’re not — as some would have us believe — doomed to an inevitable fate.

We believe faith and freedom must be our guiding stars, for they show us truth, they make us brave, give us hope, and leave us wiser than we were.

This country was founded and built by people with great dreams and the courage to take great risks. (January 26, 1983)

You are right, … We didn’t have those things when we were young. We invented them.