Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911–2004) was an American Republican-party political leader who served as the 40th U.S. president 1981–89. He was a B-grade Hollywood actor and a union leader before entering politics.
Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan studied economics and became a radio announcer and sportscaster. He acted in over fifty mostly-unremarkable movies such as King’s Row (1941) and The Voice of the Turtle (1948.)
Reagan began his political career as a Democrat but later came to hate high taxes, big government, and communism. After two terms as governor of California, Reagan failed to gain the Republican party’s nomination in the 1968 and 1976 presidential elections. He was successful in 1980; he defeated Jimmy Carter and became, at the age of 61, then the oldest-ever president.
A conservative Republican, Reagan’s administration significantly increased defense spending, slashed taxes and social services funds but oversaw a significant rise in the national budget deficit.
Reagan held several summit meetings with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that brought about the nuclear forces non-proliferation treaty in 1987. Reagan left office in 1989, still massively popular with the American population.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ronald Reagan
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.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Inaction
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Politics, Politicians
Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Government
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Enemy
Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things.
—Ronald Reagan
The taxpayer—that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Taxes, Taxation
In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Government, Crises
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: World
You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin..? …Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world?
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Revolution
True, lasting peace cannot be secured through
the strength of arms alone. Among free peoples,
the open exchange of ideas ultimately is our greatest security.
—Ronald Reagan
In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Awareness
You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Security
We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Defense, Security
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!
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: One liners, Government, Bureaucracy
Every new day begins with possibilities. It’s up to us to fill it with the things that move us toward progress and peace.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Action
Status quo, you know, that is Latin for the mess we’re in.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Change
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
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Weapon
A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Government
The best minds are not in the government. If any were, business would hire them away.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Business, Mind, Government
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
—Ronald Reagan
To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence of successful leadership—not only on the movie set where I learned it, but everywhere.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Leadership, Vision, Success
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
—Ronald Reagan
There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Growth
I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Worry
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Freedom
We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one!
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Justice
So in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation blithely to declare yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: War
A leader, once convinced that a particular course of action is the right one, must be undaunted when the going gets tough.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Perseverance, Determination, Endurance
The taxpayer: Someone who works for the government but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination.
—Ronald Reagan
Topics: Taxes
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.
—Ronald Reagan
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Herbert Hoover American Statesman
Jimmy Carter American Head of State
Lyndon B. Johnson American Head of State
George H. W. Bush American Head of State
Richard Nixon American Head of State
Dwight D. Eisenhower American Head of State
John F. Kennedy American Head of State
William McKinley American Head of State
Theodore Roosevelt American Head of State
Fred Astaire American Dancer, Singer