General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear...

We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!

Most of my dreams came true.

This kind of weapon can’t help but have an effect on the population as a whole

In an atmosphere of liberty, artists and patrons are free to think the unthinkable and create the audacious; they are free to make both horrendous mistakes and glorious celebrations.

Cures were developed for which there were no known diseases. (Commenting on Congress and the federal budget, 1981)

We are for aiding our allies by sharing some of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if...

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer...

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

This mad dog of the Middle East.

Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the Court’s result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create...

The Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted — because everyone would join that party.

We seek a constitutional amendment to permit voluntary school prayer. God should never have been expelled from America’s classrooms in the first place.

When I’ve heard all I need to make a decision, I don’t take a vote. I make a decision.

We should declare war on North Vietnam – we could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas

Most of my dreams came true. (told to biographer Lou Cannon in 1991)

But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.

Now you hear a lot of jokes about Silent Cal Coolidge, … but I think that the joke is on the people that make jokes because if you look at his record, he cut the...

And make no mistake about it, this attack was not just against ourselves or the Republic of Korea. This was the Soviet Union against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among...

Our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they’re sinners can bring democracy the tolerance it requires to survive

You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.

Not everybody aspires to be a bank president or a nuclear scientist, but everybody wants to do something with one’s life that will give him pride and a sense of accomplishment.

The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So...

It’s difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn’t available

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

Democracy is not a fragile flower; still it needs cultivating.

I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.

Some spend their entire lives wondering if they have made a difference in this world. The Marines don’t have that problem.

A bird on a tether, no matter how long the rope, can always be pulled back.

A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets tough.

If you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen them all

Every new day begins with possibilities. It’s up to us to fill it with thethings that move us toward progress and peace.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

If politics were a musical, it would be “Promises, Promises”.

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics:...

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full-bloom from my brow — they came from the heart of a great nation.

Nations do not mistrust each other because they are armed; they are armed because they mistrust each other.

A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist.

Governments don’t reduce deficits by raising taxes on the people; governments reduce deficits by controlling spending and stimulating new wealth.

If I could paraphrase a well-known statement by Will Rogers that he never met a man he didn’t like — I’m afraid we have some people around here who never met a tax they didn’t...

Above all, we must realize that 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. It is a weapon...

[The most effective president, he told Forbes magazine 11 months ago, was Harry Truman, because] everybody who worked for him worshiped him because he was absolutely trustworthy. … His great strength was not charisma, as...

Money can’t buy happiness but it will get you a better class of memories

An actor knows two important things — to be honest in what he is doing and to be in touch with the audience. That’s not bad advice for a politician either.

If you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them all.