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.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

Life is one grand sweet song so start the music

Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breath it seemed I was getting less & less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But...

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing will begin in five minutes. – During radio microphone test

I’ve always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other. (April 11, 1984)

Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy “accommodation”. And they say...

Since I came to the White House, I got two hearing aids, a colon operation, skin cancer, a prostate operation, and I was shot. The damn thing is I’ve never felt better in my life.

There are no easy answers’ but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

The one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period [is] contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

One picture is worth 1,000 denials.

Even Albert Einstein reportedly needed help on his 1040 form.

And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think this course...

There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.

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...