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A Moment I've Been Dreading. George Brought His Ne're-do-well Son Around This Morning And Asked Me To Find The Kid A Job. Not The Political One Who Lives In Florida. The One Who Hangs Around Here All The Time Looking Shiftless. This So-called Kid Is Already Almost 40 And Has Never Had A Real Job. Maybe I'll Call Kinsley Over At The New Republic And See If They'll Hire Him As A Contributing Editor Or Something. That Looks Like Easy Work.

-Ronald Reagan

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A Moment I've Been

Ronald Reagan

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A Moment I've Been Dreading. George Brought His Ne're-do-well Son Around This Morning And Asked Me To Find The Kid A Job. Not The Political One Who Lives In Florida. The One Who Hangs Around Here All The Time Looking Shiftless. This So-called Kid Is Already Almost 40 And Has Never Had A Real Job. Maybe I'll Call Kinsley Over At The New Republic And See If They'll Hire Him As A Contributing Editor Or Something. That Looks Like Easy Work.

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More From Ronald Reagan

It's Said That Prayer Can Move Mountains. Well, It's Certainly Moved The Hearts And Minds Of Americans In Their Times Of Trial And Helped Them To Achieve A Society That, For All Its Imperfections, Is Still The Envy Of The World And The Last, Best Hope Of Mankind.

My Belief Has Always Been... That Wherever In This Land Any Individual's Constitutional Rights Are Being Unjustly Denied, It Is The Obligation Of The Federal Government-at Point Of Bayonet If Necessary-to Restore That Individual's Constitutional Rights

I Have Been One Who Believes That Abortion Is The Taking Of A Human Life . . . . The Fact That They Could Not Resolve The Issue Of When Life Begins Was A Finding In And Of Itself. If We Don't Know, Then Shouldn't We Morally Opt On The Side That It Is Life? If You Came Upon An Immobile Body And You Yourself Could Not Determine Whether It Was Dead Or Alive, I Think That You Would Decide To Consider It Alive Until Somebody Could Prove It Was Dead. You Wouldn't Get A Shovel And Start Covering It Up. And I Think We Should Do The Same Thing With Regard To Abortion.

Church And State Are, And Must Remain, Separate.

As Government Expands, Liberty Contracts.

Trains Are Not Any More Energy Efficient Than The Average Automobile, With Both Getting About 48 Passenger Miles To The Gallon.

I Know Teddy Kennedy Had Fun At The Democratic Convention When He Said That I Said That Trees And Vegetation Caused 80 Percent Of The Air Pollution In This Country. ... Well, Now He Was A Little Wrong About What I Said. I Didn't Say 80 Percent. I Said 92 Percent-93 Percent, Pardon Me. And I Didn't Say Air Pollution, I Said Oxides Of Nitrogen. Growing And Decaying Vegetation In This Land Are Responsible For 93 Percent Of The Oxides Of Nitrogen. ... If We Are Totally Successful And Can Eliminate All The Manmade Oxides Of Nitrogen, We'll Still Have 93 Percent As Much As We Have In The Air Today.

America Is, And Always Will Be, A Shining City On A Hill.

I'm Beginning To Wonder If The Symbol Of The United States Pretty Soon Isn't Going To Be An Ambassador With A Flag Under His Arm Climbing Into An Escape Helicopter.

The Struggle Now Going On For The World Will Never Be Decided By Bombs Or Rockets, By Armies Or Military Might. The Real Crisis We Face Today Is A Spiritual One; At Root, It Is A Test Of Moral Will And Faith.

Now, So There Will Be No Misunderstanding, It's Not My Intention To Do Away With Government. It Is Rather To Make It Work - Work With Us, Not Over Us; To Stand By Our Side, Not Ride On Our Back. Government Can And Must Provide Opportunity, Not Smother It; Foster Productivity, Not Stifle It.

I'm No Linguist, But I Have Been Told That In The Russian Language, There Isn't Even A Word For Freedom.

Russian Language

America's View Of Apartheid Is Simple And Straightforward: We Believe It Is Wrong. We Condemn It. And We Are United In Hoping For The Day When Apartheid Will Be No More.

You Hear A Lot Of Jokes Every Once In A While About 'silent Cal Coolidge.' The Joke Is On The People Who Make The Jokes. Look At His Record. He Cut The Taxes Four Times. We Had Probably The Greatest Growth And Prosperity That We've Ever Known. I Have Taken Heed Of That Because If He Did That By Doing Nothing, Maybe That's The Answer.

Respect For Human Rights Is Not Social Work; It Is Not Merely An Act Of Compassion. It Is The First Obligation Of Government And The Source Of Its Legitimacy.

When A Child Loses His Parent, They Are Called An Orphan. When A Spouse Loses Her Or His Partner, They Are Called A Widow Or Widower. When Parents Lose Their Child, Their Isn't A Word To Describe Them. This Month Recognizes The Loss So Many Parents Experience Across The United States And Around The World. It Is Also Meant To Inform And Provide Resources For Parents Who Have Lost Children Due To Miscarriage, Ectopic Pregnancy, Molar Pregnancy, Stillbirths, Birth Defects, Sids, And Other Causes.

We Are A Nation That Has A Government-not The Other Way Around. And That Makes Us Special Among The Nations Of The Earth.

Today It Is Difficult To Find Leaders Who Are Independent Of The Forces That Have Brought Us Our Problems: The Congress, The Bureaucracy, The Lobbyists, Big Business, And Big Labor.

Going Around This Country, I Have Found A Great Hunger In America For Spiritual Revival; For A Belief That Law Must Be Based On A Higher Law; For A Return To Traditions And Values That We Once Had. Our Government, In Its Most Sacred Documents - The Constitution And The Declaration Of Independence And All - Speak Of Man Being Created, Of A Creator; That We're A Nation Under God.

If You're Explaining, You're Losing.

I've Long Believed That One Of The Mainsprings Of Our Own Liberty Has Been The Widespread Ownership Of Property Among Our People And The Expectation That Anyone's Child, Even From The Humblest Of Families, Could Grow Up To Own A Business Or A Corporation. Thomas Jefferson Dreamed Of A Land Of Small Farmers, Of Shopowners, And Merchants. Abraham Lincoln Signed Into Law The Homestead Act That Ensured That The Great Western Prairies Of America Would Be The Realm Of Independent, Propertyowning Citizens-a Mightier Guarantee Of Freedom Is Difficult To Imagine.

Where There's Liberty, Art Succeeds.

I Want You To Know That This Administration Is Motivated By A Political Philosophy That Sees The Greatness Of America In You, Her People, And In Your Families, Churches, Neighborhoods, Communities - The Institutions That Foster And Nourish Values Like Concern For Others And Respect For The Rule Of Law Under God.

It Is The Soviet Union That Runs Against The Tide Of Human History By Denying Human Freedom And Human Dignity To Its Citizens.

It's All Part Of Taking A Chance And Expanding Man's Horizons. The Future Doesn't Belong To The Fainthearted; It Belongs To The Brave.

We Who Live In Free Market Societies Believe That Growth, Prosperity And Ultimately Human Fulfillment, Are Created From The Bottom Up, Not The Government Down.

We Should Measure Welfare's Success By How Many People Leave Welfare, Not By How Many Are Added.

Government Welfare

Freedom And The Dignity Of The Individual Have Been More Available And Assured Here Than In Any Other Place On Earth. The Price For This Freedom At Times Has Been High, But We Have Never Been Unwilling To Pay The Price.

I Believe That The Most Essential Element Of Our Defense Of Freedom Is Our Insistence On Speaking Out For The Cause Of Religious Liberty.

Presidents Come And Go. History Comes And Goes, But Principles Endure.

Our Economic Assistance Must Be Carefully Targeted, And Must Make Maximum Use Of The Energy And Efforts Of The Private Sector... Economic Freedom Is The World's Mightiest Engine For Abundance And Social Justice... Developing Countries Need To Be Encouraged To Experiment With A Growing Variety Of Arrangements For Profit Sharing And Expanded Capital Ownership.

The Most Fundamental Paradox Is That If We're Never To Use Force, We Must Be Prepared To Use It And To Use It Successfully. We Americans Don't Want War And We Don't Start Fights. We Don't Maintain A Strong Military Force To Conquer Or Coerce Others. The Purpose Of Our Military Is Simple And Straightforward: We Want To Prevent War.

Hope Remains The Highest Reality, The Age-old Power.

A Small Nation, Faced With The Denial Of Its Sovereignty — Indeed, Of Its Very Existence — Reminded Us That The Price Of Freedom Is High But Never So Costly As The Loss Of Freedom.

Price Of Freedom

We Are At War With The Most Dangerous Enemy That Has Ever Faced Mankind In His Long Climb From The Swamp To The Stars, And It Has Been Said If We Lose That War, And In So Doing Lose This Way Of Freedom Of Ours, History Will Record With The Greatest Astonishment That Those Who Had The Most To Lose Did The Least To Prevent Its Happening.

On Father's Day, We Pay Tribute To All In Our Society Who Have Taken On The Responsibilities And Joys Of Fatherhood. Whether Our Fathers Are Near At Hand Or A Continent Away, With Their Families Or Watching From The Light Of Eternity, We Take This Day To Remember Them, To Say Our Thanks For The Years They Have Given Us, And To Ask That They Receive God's Blessings.

Someone Must Stand Up To Those Who Say, "here's The Key, There's The Treasury, Just Take As Many Of Those Hard-earned Tax Dollars As You Want."

Anyone That's Ever Had Their Kitchen Done Over Knows That It Never Never Gets Done As Soon As You Wish It Would.

To Those Who Cite The First Amendment As Reason For Excluding God From More And More Of Our Institutions And Everyday Life, May I Just Say: The First Amendment Of The Constitution Was Not Written To Protect The People Of This Country From Religious Values; It Was Written To Protect Religious Values From Government Tyranny.

I've Always Believed That We Were, Each Of Us, Put Here For A Reason, That There Is A Plan, Somehow A Divine Plan For All Of Us. I Know Now That Whatever Days Are Left To Me Belong To Him.

Words Are Even More Feeble On This Memorial Day, For The Sight Before Us Is That Of A Strong And Good Nation That Stands In Silence And Remembers Those Who Were Loved And Who, In Return, Loved Their Countrymen Enough To Die For Them.

It's Time That We Recognized That Ours Was In Truth A Noble Cause.

Terrorism Is The Preferred Weapon Of Weak And Evil Men.

I Don't Want To Do A Tv Series. It's No Fun Working From Dawn To Sunset Every Day. An Occasional Movie Would Be Fine, And Then I'll See What Might Develop On The Political Front.

I Don't Know Why Anyone Would Want To Study The Expansion Of The Universe.

There Was A Time When "sound As A Dollar" Was A Description, Not A Joke.

America Has Begun A Spiritual Reawakening. Faith And Hope Are Being Restored. Americans Are Turning Back To God. Church Attendance Is Up. Audiences For Religious Books And Broadcasts Are Growing. And I Do Believe That He Has Begun To Heal Our Blessed Land.

The One Thing Our Founding Fathers Could Not Foresee - They Were Farmers, Professional Men, Businessmen Giving Of Their Time And Effort To An Idea That Became A Country - Was A Nation Governed By Professional Politicians Who Had An Interest In Getting Re-elected. They Probably Envisioned A Fellow Serving A Couple Of Hitches And Then Eagerly Looking Forward To Getting Back To The Farm.

When You Can't Make Them See The Light, Make Them Feel The Heat.

If You Serve A Child A Rotten Hamburger In America, Federal, State, And Local Agencies Will Investigate You, Summon You, Close You Down, Whatever. But If You Provide A Child With A Rotten Education, Nothing Happens, Except That You're Liable To Be Given More Money To Do It With. Well, We've Discovered That Money Alone Isn't The Answer.

The Nine Most Terrifying Words In The English Language Are "i'm From The Government, And I'm Here To Help."

Unless Bureaucracy Is Constantly Resisted, It Breaks Down Representative Government And Overwhelms Democracy.

My Fellow Americans, I Must Speak To You Tonight About A Mounting Danger In Central America That Threatens The Security Of The United States. This Danger Will Not Go Away It Will Grow Worse, Much Worse, If We Fail To Take Action Now.

Only When The Human Spirit Is Allowed To Invent And Create, Only When Individuals Are Given A Personal Stake In Deciding Economic Policies And Benefiting From Their Success - Only Then Can Societies Remain Economically Alive, Dynamic, Prosperous, Progressive And Free.

We Seek A Constitutional Amendment To Permit Voluntary School Prayer. God Should Never Have Been Expelled From America's Classrooms In The First Place.

The Freedom Of Thought And Action We Americans Enjoy Today Seems As Natural As The Air We Breathe. But There Is A Danger We May Take This Freedom For Granted. We Must Never Forget It Was Bought For Us At A Great Price. The Brave And Resourceful Americans Whose Sacrifices Gained Our Independence And Preserved It For More Than 200 Years Against Formidable Foes Have Set An Example Of Unflinching Loyalty To The Ideal Of Liberty And Justice For All.

Justice For All

The Time Has Come To Turn To God And Reassert Our Trust In Him For The Healing Of America - Our Country Is In Need Of And Ready For A Spiritual Renewal.

We Have To Realize That This Country In Its Private Sector Has Been Fighting The Most Successful War On Poverty The World Has Seen For The Last 200 Years.

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'.

We've Been A Free People Living Under The Law, With Faith In Our Maker And In Our Future. I've Said Before That The Most Sublime Picture In American History Is Of George Washington On His Knees In The Snow At Valley Forge. That Image Personifies A People Who Know That It's Not Enough To Depend On Our Own Courage And Goodness; We Must Also Seek Help From God, Our Father And Preserver.

An America That Is Militarily And Economically Strong Is Not Enough. The World Must See An America That Is Morally Strong With A Creed And A Vision. This Is What Has Led Us To Dare And Achieve. For Us, Values Count.

I Have Come To The Conclusion That The 22nd Amendment [limiting The Presidency To Two Terms] Was A Mistake. Shouldn't The People Have The Right To Vote For Someone As Many Times As They Want To Vote For Him?

The Government Is Currently Experiencing Withdrawal Symptoms, And We Musn't Feed The Habit By Injecting More Tax Dollars Into It.

Christmas Is A Holiday That We Celebrate Not As Individuals Nor As A Nation, But As A Human Family.

I Believe The Highest Aspiration Of Man Should Be Individual Freedom And The Development Of The Individual.

When I Took The Oath Of Office, I Pledged Loyalty To Only One Special Interest Group - ‘we The People’.

Have We The Courage And The Will To Face Up To The Immorality And Discrimination Of The Progressive Tax, And Demand A Return To Traditional Proportionate Taxation? ... Today In Our Country The Tax Collector's Share Is 37 Cents Of Every Dollar Earned. Freedom Has Never Been So Fragile, So Close To Slipping From Our Grasp.

Don't Be Afraid To See What You See.

We Can Not Play Innocents Abroad In A World That Is Not Innocent.

There Are Many Well-meaning People Today Who Work At Placing An Economic Floor Beneath All Of Us So That No One Shall Exist Below A Certain Level Or Standard Of Living, And Certainly We Don't Quarrel With This. But Look More Closely And You May Find That All Too Often These Well-meaning People Are Building A Ceiling Above Which No One Shall Be Permitted To Climb And Between The Two Are Pressing Us All Into Conformity, Into A Mold Of Standardized Mediocrity.

May All Of You As Americans Never Forget Your Heroic Origins, Never Fail To Seek Divine Guidance, And Never Lose Your Natural God-given Optimism.

Divine Guidance

America Has Always Been Greatest When We Dared To Be Great. We Can Reach For Greatness Again. We Can Follow Our Dreams To Distant Stars, Living And Working In Space For Peaceful, Economic, And Scientific Gain. Tonight, I Am Directing Nasa To Develop A Permanently Manned Space Station, And To Do It Within A Decade.

For One, We Very Much Need In Any Immigration Bill - We Need Protection For People Who Are In This Country And Who Have Not Become Citizens, For Example, That They Are Protected And Legitimized And Given Permanent Residency Here. And We Want To See Some Things Of That Kind Added To The Immigration Bill.

If I'd Gotten The Job I Wanted At Montgomery Ward, I Suppose I Would Never Have Left Illinois.

The Person Who Pays An Ounce Of Principle For A Pound Of Popularity Gets Badly Cheated.

What's Happening In Cuba Is Not A Failure Of The Cuban People. It's A Failure Of Fidel Castro And The Communists.

Concentrated Power Has Always Been The Enemy Of Liberty.

We're Looking Forward To A Great Season At The University Of California - If We Find A Way To Put Cleats On Their Sandals.

Our Liberties, Our Values, All For Which America Stands Is Safe Today Because Brave Men And Women Have Been Ready To Face The Fire At Freedom's Front. And We Thank God For Them.

Well, I Think There Has To Be Some (gun) Control.

Simple Fairness Dictates That Government Must Not Raise Taxes On Families Struggling To Pay Their Bills.

I Notice That Everbody Who Is Pro-abortion Already Has Been Born.

I Have Seen The Rise Of Fascism And Communism. Both Philosophies Glorify The Arbitrary Power Of The State... But Both Theories Fail. Both Deny Those God-given Liberties That Are The Inalienable Right Of Each Person On This Planet, Indeed, They Deny The Existence Of God.

In This Present Crisis, Government Is Not The Solution To Our Problem; Government Is The Problem. From Time To Time We've Been Tempted To Believe That Society Has Become Too Complex To Be Managed By Self-rule, That Government By An Elite Group Is Superior To Government For, By, And Of The People. Well, If No One Among Us Is Capable Of Governing Himself, Then Who Among Us Has The Capacity To Govern Someone Else? All Of Us Together, In And Out Of Government, Must Bear The Burden.

If A Tax Hike Makes It To My Desk, I'll Veto It In Less Time Than It Takes Vanna White To Turn The Letters V-e-t-o!

Government Is Not The Solution, But Rather The Cause Of Our Problems.

The Frustrating Thing Is That Those Who Are Attacking Religion Claim They Are Doing It In The Name Of Tolerance, Freedom And Openmindedness. Question: Isn't The Real Truth That They Are Intolerant Of Religion? They Refuse To Tolerate Its Importance In Our Lives.

Our Goals Are The Same As Those Of The U.n.'s Founders, Who Sought To Replace A World At War With One Where The Rule Of Law Would Prevail, Where Human Rights Were Honored, Where Development Would Blossom, Where Conflict Would Give Way To Freedom From Violence.

You Can't Be For Big Government, Big Taxes And Big Bureaucracy And Still Be For The Little Guy.

The Time Has Come To Turn To God And Reassert Our Trust In Him.

Spiritual Renewal

A State Is Nothing More Than A Reflection Of Its Citizens; The More Decent The Citizens, The More Decent The State.

The District Of Columbia Is One Gigantic Ear.

The Bible And Its Teachings Helped Form The Basis For The Founding Fathers' Abiding Belief In The Inalienable Rights Of The Individual.

Freedom Is One Of The Deepest And Noblest Aspirations Of The Human Spirit.

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 Down This Wall!

Elvis Epitomised America, And For That We Shall Be Eternally Grateful. There Will Never Be Anyone Else Like Him. Let's All Rejoice In His Music.

We Can't Have It Both Ways. We Can't Expect God To Protect Us In A Crisis And Just Leave Him Over There On The Shelf In Our Day-to-day Living. I Wonder If Sometimes He Isn't Waiting For Us To Wake Up, He Isn't Maybe Running Out Of Patience.

In The 38th Chapter Of Ezekiel, It Says That The Land Of Israel Will Come Under Attack By The Armies Of The Ungodly Nations, And It Says That Libya Will Be Among Them. Do You Understand The Significance Of That? Libya Has Now Gone Communist, And That's A Sign That The Day Of Armageddon Isn't Far Off.

There Is Nothing Wrong With America That Americans Can't Fix.

I Believe In A Sound, Strong Environmental Policy That Protects The Health Of Our People And A Wise Stewardship Of Our Nation's Natural Resources.

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 More Government Is The Answer, Then It Was A Really Stupid Question.

Our Policy Is Simple: We Are Not Going To Betray Our Friends, Reward The Enemies Of Freedom, Or Permit Fear And Retreat To Become American Policies — Especially In This Hemisphere. None Of The Four Wars In My Lifetime Came About Because We Were Too Strong.

To Say Congress Is Spending Like Drunken Sailors Is An Insult To Drunken Sailors.

You And I Have A Rendezvous With Destiny. We Will Preserve For Our Children This, The Last Best Hope Of Man On Earth.

Our Principles Were Revolutionary. We Began As A Small, Weak Republic. But We Survived. Our Example Inspired Others, Imperfectly At Times, But It Inspired Them Nevertheless. This Constitutional Republic, Conceived In Liberty And Dedicated To The Proposition That All Men Are Created Equal, Prospered And Grew Strong. To This Day, America Is Still The Abiding Alternative To Tyranny. That Is Our Purpose In The World - Nothing More And Nothing Less.

We're Told About A Woman's Right To Control Her Own Body. But Doesn't The Unborn Child Have A Higher Right, And That Is To Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness?

Pursuit Of Happiness

Wherever A Beautiful Soul Has Been There Is A Trail Of Beautiful Memories.

America Is Still An Eagle, And She's Ready To Soar Again.

I Will Stand On, And Continue To Use, The Figures I Have Used, Because I Believe They Are Correct. Now, I'm Not Going To Deny That You Don't Now And Then Slip Up On Something; No One Bats A Thousand.

I Think, Too, That We've Got To Recognize That Where The Preservation Of A Natural Resource Like The Redwoods Is Concerned, That There Is A Common Sense Limit. I Mean, If You've Looked At A Hundred Thousand Acres Or So Of Trees-you Know, A Tree Is A Tree, How Many More Do You Need To Look At? Opposing Expansion Of Redwood National Park.

The Basis Of Conservatism Is A Desire For Less Government Interference Or Less Centralized Authority Or More Individual Freedom...

The Best Social Program Is A Productive Job For Anyone Who's Willing To Work.

Make No Mistake, Abortion-on-demand Is Not A Right Granted 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 Such A Right.

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.

The Vote On The Peacekeeper Is Also A Vote On Geneva. Rejecting The Peacekeeper Will Knock The Legs Out From Under The Negotiating Table. (on Importance Of The Mx Missile)

If Some Among You Fear Taking A Stand Because You Are Afraid Of Reprisals From Customers, Clients, Or Even Government, Recognize That You Are Just Feeding The Crocodile Hoping He'll Eat You Last.

The . . . Inescapable Truth Is: Government Does Not Have All The Answers. In Too Many Instances, Government Does Not Solve Problems; It Subsidizes Them.

Although I Held Public Office For A Total Of Sixteen Years, I Also Thought Of Myself As A Citizen-politician, Not A Career One. Every Now And Then When I Was In Government, I Would Remind My Associates That "when We Start Thinking Of Government As 'us' Instead Of 'them,' We've Been Here Too Long." By That I Mean That Elected Officeholders Need To Retain A Certain Skepticism About The Perfectibility Of Government.

Latinos Are Republican. They Just Don't Know It Yet.

The Pursuit Of Science, The Study Of The Great Works, The Value Of Free Inquiry, In Short, The Very Idea Of Living The Life Of The Mind - Yes, These Formative And Abiding Principles Of Higher Education In America Had Their First And Firmest Advocate, And Their Greatest Embodiment, In A Tall, Fair-headed, Friendly Man Who Watched This University Take Form From The Mountainside Where He Lived, The University Whose Founding He Called A Crowning Achievement To Along And Well-spent Life.

Her Many Achievements Will Be Appreciated More As Time Goes On.

It Was The Hard Work Of Our People, The Freedom They Enjoyed And Their Faith In God That Built This Country And Made It The Envy Of The World. In All Of Our Great Cities And Towns Evidence Of The Faith Of Our People Is Found: Houses Of Worship Of Every Denomination Are Among The Oldest Structures. While Never Willing To Bow To A Tyrant, Our Forefathers Were Always Willing To Get To Their Knees Before God. When Catastrophe Threatened, They Turned To God For Deliverance. When The Harvest Was Bountiful The First Thought Was Thanksgiving To God.

I Couldn't Help But Say To [mr. Gorbachev], Just Think How Easy His Task And Mine Might Be In These Meetings That We Held If Suddenly There Was A Threat To This World From Another Planet. [we'd] Find Out Once And For All That We Really Are All Human Beings Here On This Earth Together.

The Work Of Volunteer Groups Throughout Our Country Represents The Very Heart And Soul Of America. They Have Helped Make This The Most Compassionate, Generous, And Humane Society That Ever Existed On The Face Of This Earth.

In This Present Crisis, Government Is Not The Solution To Our Problem, Government Is The Problem. It Isn't So Much That Liberals Are Ignorant, It's Just That They Know So Much That Isn't So.

This Is A Matter Of Vital Importance To The Public Safety ... While We Recognize That Assault-weapon Legislation Will Not Stop All Assault-weapon Crime, Statistics Prove That We Can Dry Up The Supply Of These Guns, Making Them Less Accessible To Criminals.

Assault Weapons

I Believe That Communism Is Another Sad, Bizarre Chapter In Human History Whose Last Pages Even Now Are Being Written. I Believe This Because The Source Of Our Strength In The Quest For Human Freedom Is Not Material, But Spiritual. And Because It Knows No Limitation, It Must Terrify And Ultimately Triumph Over Those Who Would Enslave Their Fellow Men.

I'll Be Like Scarlett O'hara-i'll Think About It Tomorrow.

The Founding Fathers Believed That Faith In God Was The Key To Our Being A Good People And America's Becoming A Great Nation.

Could There Be Anything Resembling A Free Enterprise Economy, If Wealth And Property Were Concentrated In The Hands Of A Few, While The Great Majority Owned Little More Than The Shirts On Their Backs?

Let The Fourth Of July Always Be A Reminder That Here In This Land, For The First Time, It Was Decided That Man Is Born With Certain God-given Rights; That Government Is Only A Convenience Created And Managed By The People, With No Powers Of Its Own Except Those Voluntarily Granted To It By The People. We Sometimes Forget That Great Truth, And We Never Should. Happy Fourth Of July.

Our Enemies May Be Irrational, Even Outright Insane, Driven By Nationalism, Religion, Ethnicity Or Ideology. They Do Not Fear The United States For Its Diplomatic Skills Or The Number Of Automobiles And Software Programs It Produces. They Respect Only The Firepower Of Our Tanks, Planes And Helicopter Gunships.

. . . 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.

One Picture Is Worth 1,000 Denials.

We Were Told Four Years Ago That 17 Million People Went To Bed Hungry Each Night. Well That Was Probably True. They Were All On A Diet.

Life Is One Grand, Sweet Song, So Start The Music.

If It Takes A Bloodbath Now Let's Get It Over With.

There Is A Limit To What You Can Do In Politics.

A Stronger Defense Is An Investment In Peace.

This Is Not The Time For Political Fun And Games. This Is The Time For A New Beginning. I Ask You Now To Put Aside Any Feelings Of Frustration Or Helplessness About Our Political Institutions And Join Me In This Dramatic But Responsible Plan To Reduce The Enormous Burden Of Federal Taxation On You And Your Family.

Double - No, Triple - Our Troubles And We'd Still Be Better Off Than Any Other People On Earth.

The People's Instincts Are Still Right. You See Them Come To The Rescue Of Someone-a Child Who Falls Down A Well-hundreds Of People Rush To Help, And Labor And Equipment Are Volunteered Without Any Thought Of Who's Going To Pay For It. This Is A Basic Feeling In Americans. They Don't Stand Back In Such A Circumstance And Ask What The Government's Going To Do About It.

These Gentlemen Are The Moral Equivalents Of America's Founding Fathers.

We In The United States, Above All, Must Remember That Lesson, For We Were Founded As A Nation Of Openness To People Of All Beliefs. And So We Must Remain. Our Very Unity Has Been Strengthened By Our Pluralism. We Establish No Religion In This Country, We Command No Worship, We Mandate No Belief, Nor Will We Ever. Church And State Are, And Must Remain, Separate. All Are Free To Believe Or Not Believe, All Are Free To Practice A Faith Or Not, And Those Who Believe Are Free, And Should Be Free, To Speak Of And Act On Their Belief.

I Believe With All My Heart That Our First Priority Must Be World Peace, And That Use Of Force Is Always And Only A Last Resort, When Everything Else Has Failed, And Then Only With Regard To Our National Security.

There Is No Greater Happiness For A Man Than Approaching A Door At The End Of A Day Knowing Someone On The Other Side Of That Door Is Waiting For The Sound Of His Footsteps.

It's Just Too Bad We Can't Have An Epidemic Of Botulism.

Violence Has Been Nicaragua's Most Important Export To The World.

Labor Force Needs And Economic Conditions Are Disregarded In Our Policies. Many Aspects Of Our Current Policies And Procedures Are Patently Wrong. For Example, Legal Immigration Has Almost No Link To U.s. Employment Needs Or Economic Conditions.

Policies And Procedures

The Doctor Begins To Lose Freedoms; It's Like Telling A Lie, And One Leads To Another. First You Decide That The Doctor Can Have So Many Patients. They Are Equally Divided Among The Various Doctors By The Government. But Then The Doctors Aren't Equally Divided Geographically, So A Doctor Decides He Wants To Practice In One Town And The Government Has To Say To Him You Can't Live In That Town, They Already Have Enough Doctors. You Have To Go Someplace Else. And From Here It Is Only A Short Step To Dictating Where He Will Go.

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.

Until Now Has There Ever Been A Time In Which So Many Of The Prophecies Are Coming Together? There Have Been Times In The Past When People Thought The End Of The World Was Coming, And So Forth, But Never Anything Like This.

The Trouble With Our Liberal Friends Is Not That They're Ignorant; It's Just That They Know So Much That Isn't So.

All The Waste In A Year From A Nuclear Power Plant Can Be Stored Under A Desk.

Alec Has Forged A Unique Partnership Between State Legislators And Leaders From The Corporate And Business Community. This Partnership Offers Businessmen The Extraordinary Opportunity To Apply Their Talents To Solve America's Problems And Build On Our Opportunities.

God's Miracles Are To Be Found In Nature Itself; The Wind And Waves, The Wood That Becomes A Tree - All Of These Are Explained Biologically, But Behind Them Is The Hand Of God.

After Watching The State Of The Union Address The Other Night [1994], I'm Reminded Of The Old Adage That Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery. Only In This Case, It's Not Flattery, But Grand Larceny: The Intellectual Theft Of Ideas That You And I Recognize As Our Own. Speech Delivery Counts For Little On The World Stage Unless You Have Convictions, And, Yes, The Vision To See Beyond The Front Row Seats.

Mankind's Journey Into Space, Like Every Great Voyage Of Discovery, Will Become Part Of Our Unending Journey Of Liberation. In The Limitless Reaches Of Space, We Will Find Liberation From Tyranny, From Scarcity, From Ignorance And From War. We Will Find The Means To Protect This Earth And To Nurture Every Human Life, And To Explore The Universe. . . .this Is Our Mission, This Is Our Destiny.

We Intend To Keep The Peace - We Will Also Keep Our Freedom.

I Know That Some Believe That Voluntary Prayer In Schools Should Be Restricted To A Moment Of Silence. We Already Have The Right To Remain Silent - We Can Take Our Fifth Amendment.

No Matter What Time It Is, Wake Me, Even If It's In The Middle Of A Cabinet Meeting.

Inflation Is As Violent As A Mugger, As Frightening As An Armed Robber And As Deadly As A Hit Man.

We In Government Should Learn To Look At Our Country With The Eyes Of The Entrepreneur, Seeing Possibilities Where Others See Only Problems

The Bill's A Textbook Example Of Special Interest Pork Barrel Politics At Work, And I Have No Choice But To Veto It.

With Regard To The Freedom Of The Individual For Choice With Regard To Abortion, There Is One Individual Who Is Not Being Considered At All, And That Is The One Who Is Being Aborted. And I Have Noticed That Everybody That Is For Abortion Has Already Been Born.

Like The Genocide Of The Armenians Before It, And The Genocide Of The Cambodians Which Followed It ... The Lessons Of The Holocaust Must Never Be Forgotten.

Well, The Task I've Set Forth Will Long Outlive Our Own Generation. But Together, We Too Have Come Through The Worst. Let Us Now Begin A Major Effort To Secure The Best- A Crusade For Freedom That Will Engage The Faith And Fortitude Of The Next Generation. 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.

There Are Simple Answers To The Nation's Problems, But Not Easy Ones.

There Is Purpose And Worth To Each And Every Life.

Are You Willing To Spend Time Studying The Issues, Making Yourself Aware, And Then Conveying That Information To Family And Friends? Will You Resist The Temptation To Get A Government Handout For Your Community?

The First Amendment Of The Constitution Was Not Written To Protect The People From Religion; That Amendment Was Written To Protect Religion From Government Tyranny. . . But Now We're Told Our Children Have No Right To Pray In School. Nonsense. The Pendulum Has Swung Too Far Toward Intolerance Against Genuine Religious Freedom. It Is Time To Redress The Balance.

It Ought To Be Remembered By All [that] The Games More Than 2,000 Years Ago Started As A Means Of Bringing Peace Between The Greek City-states. And In Those Days, Even If A War Was Going On, They Called Off The War In Order To Hold The Games. I Wish We Were Still As Civilized.

The Best View Of Big Government Is In The Rearview Mirror As We Leave It Behind.

No Longer Must Government Be Allowed To Ride Roughshod, Absorbing The People's Wealth, Usurping Their Rights, And Crushing Their Spirit.

This Democracy Of Ours, Which Sometimes We've Treated So Lightly, Is More Than Ever A Comfortable Cloak, So Let Us Not Tear It Asunder, For No Man Knows, Once It Is Destroyed, Where Or When He Will Find Its Protective Warmth Again.

One Day, A Pretty, Fresh-faced Young Lady - Intelligent And Sincerely Concerned - Asked Me If Abortion Wasn't Preferable To Making A Young, Unmarried Girl Have A Baby She Didn't Want And Which Would, Therefore, Grow Up Unloved And Probably Turn Out To Be A Criminal. I Gave An Answer Which Apparently She Hadn't Considered. I Told Her There Were Literally Millions Of People In This Country Who Wanted But Could Not Have Children And Who Waited Eagerly, Sometimes For Years, To Adopt The Baby She Had Described.

Everywhere We Go, Nancy Makes The World A Little Better.

We Have Seen Numerous Instances In Which American Businesses Have Brought In Foreign Skilled Workers After Having Laid Off Skilled American Workers, Simply Because They Can Get The Foreign Workers More Cheaply. It Has Become A Major Means Of Circumventing The Costs Of Paying Skilled American Workers Or The Costs Of Training Them.

The Federal Government Did Not Create The States; The States Created The Federal Government.

Federal Government

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.

I've Said It Before And I'll Say It Again. The U.s. Geological Survey Has Told Me That The Proven Potential For Oil In Alaska Alone Is Greater Than The Proven Reserves In Saudi Arabia.

Government Is Never More Dangerous Than When Our Desire To Have It Help Us Blinds Us To Its Great Power To Harm Us.

I Believe Now, As I Alway Have, That America's Strength Is In 'we The People.'

There Is A Flickering Spark In Us All Which, If Struck At Just The Right Age...can Light The Rest Of Our Lives, Elevating Our Ideals, Deepening Our Tolerance, And Sharpening Our Appetite For Knowledge About The Rest Of The World. Educational And Cultural Exchanges...provide A Perfect Opportunity For This Precious Spark To Grow, Making Us More Sensitive And Wiser International Citizens Through Our Careers.

There You Go Again. When I Opposed Medicare, There Was Another Piece Of Legislation Meeting The Same Problem Before The Congress. I Happened To Favor The Other Piece Of Legislation And Thought That It Would Be Better For The Senior Citizens To Provide Better Care Than The One That Was Finally Passed.

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.

Isn't It Strange That ... People Build Walls To Keep An Enemy Out, And There's Only One Part Of The World And One Philosophy Where They Have To Build Walls To Keep Their People In

This Crime Against Humanity Must Never Be Forgotten.

Fellow Americans, Our Duty Is Before Us Tonight. Let Us Go Forward, Determined To Serve Selflessly A Vision Of Man With God, Government For People, And Humanity At Peace. For It Is Now Our Task To Tend And Preserve, Through The Darkest And Coldest Nights, That "sacred Fire Of Liberty" That President Washington Spoke Of Two Centuries Ago, A Fire That Tonight Remains A Beacon To All Oppressed Of The World, Shining Forth From This Kindly, Pleasant, Greening Land We Call America.

My Friends, We Did It. We Weren't Just Marking Time, We Made A Difference. We Made (america) Stronger - We Made (america) Freer - And We Left Her In Good Hands. All In All, Not Bad. Not Bad At All. And So, Goodbye. God Bless You. And God Bless The United States Of America.

A Leader, Once Convinced That A Particular Course Of Action Is The Right One, Must....be Undaunted When The Going Gets Tough.

If You Don't Know Whether A Body Is Alive Or Dead, You Would Never Bury It. I Think This Consideration Itself Should Be Enough For All Of Us To Insist On Protecting The Unborn.

Our Founding Fathers Well Understood That Concentrated Power Is The Enemy Of Liberty And The Rights Of Man. They Knew That The American Experiment In Individual Liberty, Free Enterprise And Republican Self-government Could Succeed Only If Power Were Widely Distributed. And Since In Any Society Social And Political Power Flow From Economic Power, They Saw That Wealth And Property Would Have To Be Widely Distributed Among The People Of The Country. The Truth Of This Insight Is Immediately Apparent.

One Of The Traditional Methods Of Imposing Statism Or Socialism On A People Has Been By Way Of Medicine. It’s Very Easy To Disguise A Medical Program As A Humanitarian Project, Most People Are A Little Reluctant To Oppose Anything That Suggests Medical Care For People Who Possibly Can’t Afford It.

While I Take Inspiration From The Past, Like Most Americans, I Live For The Future.

I've Noticed That Everyone Who Is For Abortion Has Already Been Born.

Middle Age Is When You're Faced With Two Temptations And You Choose The One That Will Get You Home By Nine O'clock.

Thomas Jefferson Once Said. He Said , "we Should Never Judge A President By His Age, Only By His Works." And Ever Since He Told Me That, I've Stopped Worrying. There Are Those Who Say I've Stopped Working.

We Don't Need More Politicians Insisting We Have Deficits Because You're Not Taxed Enough. Those Deficits Ballooned From An Economy That Didn't Grow Enough And From 50 Years Of Government Spending Too Much.

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