Ronald Reagan Quotes Proverbs, and Aphorisms

Updated 2025/05/16

February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004
American
The 40th President of the United States, Actor, Politician, Governor of California

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and a former actor and governor of California, known for his conservative leadership, optimistic rhetoric, and role in ending the Cold War. He implemented “Reaganomics,” promoting tax cuts, deregulation, and free-market policies aimed at stimulating economic growth. On the global stage, he took a hard stance against the Soviet Union while later engaging in arms reduction talks, helping pave the way for the Cold War’s peaceful resolution. Admired for restoring national confidence and strengthening U.S. global influence, Reagan was also criticized for increasing deficits and neglecting social programs. His legacy endures as a defining figure of modern American conservatism.

“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
“The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy – the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities – which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.”
“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”
“The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.”
“While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.”
“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”
“Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.”
“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.”
“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.”
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”
“Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.”
“When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”
“Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”
“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.”
“I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
“Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.”
“My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.”
“What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.”
“Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.”
“Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.”
“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”
“If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.”
“Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.”
“We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.”
“Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.”
“You are Mrs. Reagan because Mr. Reagan loves you with all his heart.”
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”
“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”
“Trust, but verify.”
“My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.”
“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!”
“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
“We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.”
“To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.”
“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.”
“Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.”
“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
“Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.”
“We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.”
“Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.”
“Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.”
“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.”
“We don’t hide our space program. We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute.”
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“Man is not free unless government is limited.”
“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”
“No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it’s in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.”
“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: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”
“A people free to choose will always choose peace.”
“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 do something about the unemployed.”
“One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.”
“I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.”
“For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.”
“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”
“I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: ‘This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.’ Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.”
“Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”
“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 our adversaries in today’s world do not have.”
“People do not make wars; governments do.”
“Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”
“Today on the NATO line, our military forces face east to prevent a possible invasion. On the other side of the line, the Soviet forces also face east to prevent their people from leaving.”
“I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.”
“I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‘fat cat’ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‘public-spirited philanthropist’.”
“The taxpayer — that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.”
“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.”
“Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.”
“If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.”
“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.”
“It’s difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn’t available.”
“We are never defeated unless we give up on God.”
“We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.”
“Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.”
“Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.”
“The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.”
“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”
“No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.”
“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”
“Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.”
“I’ve often said there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.”
“It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.”
“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
“The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
“Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.”
“We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.”
“Facts are stubborn things.”
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.”
“They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.”
“Poland is not East or West. Poland is at the center of European civilization. It has contributed mightily to that civilization. It is doing so today by being magnificently unreconciled to oppression.”
“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.”
“It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”
“Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.”
“Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’.”
“Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.”
“Mad or glad, Mr. Reagan is head over heels in love with Mrs. Reagan and can’t even imagine a world without her — He loves her.”
“Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.”
“The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.”
“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
“Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.”
“History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”
“The British people know that, given strong leadership, time, and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil.”
“Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
“Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.”
“The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.”
“One picture is worth 1,000 denials.”
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
“Violence has been Nicaragua’s most important export to the world.”
“I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.”
“Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.”
“To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.”
“Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.”
“But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.”
“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”
“Let us ask ourselves, ‘What kind of people do we think we are?’ And let us answer, ‘Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.'”
“How can a president not be an actor?”
“Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.”
“You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.”
“We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.”
“A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?”