ACCORDING TO REAGAN

• Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
• 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.
• While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
• Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
• 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.
• The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
• Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
• Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
• 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.
• History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
• 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!
• I hope that when you're my age you'll be able to say, as I have been able to say: we lived in freedom; we lived lives that were a statement, not an apology.

- Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America
February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004

The Lighter Side of Ronald Reagan

• 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.
• I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.
• The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
• Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
• Status quo, you know, that is Latin for "the mess we're in."
• What makes him think a middle aged actor [Clint Eastwood], who's played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?
• Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.