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For Decades, We Have Piled Deficit Upon Deficit, Mortgaging Our Future And Our Children's Future For The Temporary Convenience Of The Present. To Continue This Long Trend Is To Guarantee Tremendous Social, Cultural, Political, And Economic Upheavals. You And I, As Individuals, Can, By Borrowing, Live Beyond Our Means, But For Only A Limited Period Of Time. Why, Then, Should We Think That Collectively, As A Nation, We Are Not Bound By That Same Limitation?

-Ronald Reagan

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For Decades, We Have

Ronald Reagan

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For Decades, We Have Piled Deficit Upon Deficit, Mortgaging Our Future And Our Children's Future For The Temporary Convenience Of The Present. To Continue This Long Trend Is To Guarantee Tremendous Social, Cultural, Political, And Economic Upheavals. You And I, As Individuals, Can, By Borrowing, Live Beyond Our Means, But For Only A Limited Period Of Time. Why, Then, Should We Think That Collectively, As A Nation, We Are Not Bound By That Same Limitation?

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

I'm Not A Politician By Profession. I Am A Citizen Who Decided I Had To Be Personally Involved.

Abraham Lincoln Freed The Black Man. In Many Ways, Dr. King Freed The White Man. How Did He Accomplish This Tremendous Feat? Where Others - White And Black - Preached Hatred, He Taught The Principles Of Love And Nonviolence.

The Democrats Say That The United States Has Had Its Days In The Sun, That Our Nation Has Passed Its Zenith. They Expect You To Tell Your Children That The American People No Longer Have The Will To Cope With Their Problems, That The Future Will Be One Of Sacrifice And Few Opportunities. My Fellow Citizens, I Utterly Reject That View.

There's No Question I Am An Idealist, Which Is Another Way Of Saying 'i Am An American.'

I've Talked To You On A Number Of Occasions About The Economic Problems Our Nation Faces, And I Am Prepared To Tell You It's In A Hell Of A Mess-we're Not Connected To The Press Room Yet, Are We?

The Torch Of Liberty Is Hot; Warms Those Who Hold It High; Burns Those Who Try To Extinguish It.

We Will Always Remember. We Will Always Be Proud. We Will Always Be Prepared, So We Will Always Be Free.

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.

By Emphasizing The Importance Of A Common Language, We Safeguard A Proud Legacy And Help To Ensure That America's Future Will Be As Great As Her Past.

Well, It [evolution] Is A Theory, It Is A Scientific Theory Only, And It Has In Recent Years Been Challenged In The World Of Science And Is Not Yet Believed In The Scientific Community To Be As Infallible As It Once Was Believed. But If It Was Going To Be Taught In The Schools, Then I Think That Also The Biblical Theory Of Creation, Which Is Not A Theory But The Biblical Story Of Creation, Should Also Be Taught.

I Oppose Registration For The Draft... Because I Believe The Security Of Freedom Can Best Be Achieved By Security Through Freedom.

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

I've Often Said There's Nothing Better For The Inside Of A Man Than The Outside Of A Horse.

We Must Never Remain Silent In The Face Of Bigotry. We Must Condemn Those Who Seek To Divide Us. In All Quarters And At All Times, We Must Teach Tolerance And Denounce Racism, Anti-semitism And All Ethnic Or Religious Bigotry Wherever They Exist As Unacceptable Evils. We Have No Place For Haters In America -- None, Whatsoever.

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

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

We've Gone Astray From First Principles. We've Lost Sight Of The Rule That Individual Freedom And Ingenuity Are At The Very Core Of Everything That We've Accomplished. Government's First Duty Is To Protect The People, Not Run Their Lives.

One Of The Traditional Methods Of Imposing Statism Or Socialism Has Been By Way Of Medicine....if You Don't Do This, One Of These Days You And I Are Going To Spend Our Sunset Years Telling Our Children And Our Children's Children What It Was Like In American When Men Were Free.

One Way To Make Sure Crime Doesn't Pay Would Be To Let The Government Run It.

From My Mother I Learned The Value Of Prayer, How To Have Dreams And Believe I Could Make Them Come True.

... The Moral Equal Of Our Founding Fathers.

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Today, We're Taking A Break From The Concerns And The Bustle Of The Work-a-day World. But We're Also Making A New Beginning... Let Us Renew Our Faith That As Free Men And Women We Still Have The Power To Better Our Lives, And Let Us Resolve To Face The Challenges Of The New Year Holding That Conviction Firmly In Our Hearts. That, After All, Is Our Greatest Strength And Our Greatest Gift As Americans.

Trees Cause Pollution.

Someone Told Me It Was A Round Thing That Gobbles Up Money. I Thought That Was Tip O'neill.

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We Will Remain Steady. We Will Pursue Every Avenue In The Search For Peace And Stability.

Going To College Offered Me The Chance To Play Football For Four More Years.

The Fourth Landing Of The Columbia Is The Historical Equivalent Of The Driving Of The Golden Spike Which Completed The First Transcontinental Railroad. It Marks Our Entrance Into A New Era.

Well, My Head's Full Of Questions My Temp'rature's Risin' Fast Well, I'm Lookin' For Some Answers But I Don't Know Who To Ask

I've Heard Drug Experts Say They Believe If Penicillin Were Discovered Today, The Fda Wouldn't License It.

I Don't Think Any Of Us Should Forget That The Security Of America Is Our Highest Responsibility.

Concentrated Power Has Always Been The Enemy Of Liberty. Democracy Is Worth Dying For, Because It's The Most Deeply Honorable Form Of Government Ever Devised By Man.entrepreneurs And Their Small Enterprises Are Responsible For Almost All The Economic Growth In The United States.

We Must Always Meet Our Obligation To Those Who Fall Behind Without Our Assistance. But Let's Remember, Without A Race There Can Be No Champion, No Records Broken, No Excellence - In Education Or Any Other Walk Of Life.

I Don't Know What I Expected, But My First Morning In The Oval Office Had A Surprising Ring Of Familiarity To It. It Reminded Me A Lot Of My Job As Governor.

I Know That For America There Will Always Be A Bright Dawn Ahead.

I Can't Help But Believe That In The Future We Will See In The United States And Throughout The Western World An Increasing Trend Toward The Next Logical Step, Employee Ownership. It Is A Path That Befits A Free People.

It Is The Tendency Of Government To Grow, For Practices And Programs To Become The Nearest Thing To Eternal Life We'll See On This Earth.

I, For One, Resent It When A Representative Of The People Refers To You And Me, The Free Men And Women Of This Country, As 'the Masses.'

When People Tell Me That I Became President On January 20th, 1981, I Feel I Have To Correct Them. You Don't Become President Of The United States. You Are Given Temporary Custody Of An Institution Called The Presidency, Which Belongs To Our People.

Anybody From Any Corner Of The World Can Come To America To Live And Become An American.

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.

Facts Are Stupid Things Stubborn Things, I Should Say.

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

It's Hard, When You're Up To Your Armpits In Alligators, To Remember You Came Here To Drain The Swamp.

If You Want More Of Something, Subsidize It; If You Want Less Of Something, Tax It.

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Are You Entitled To The Fruits Of Your Own Labor Or Does Government Have Some Presumptive Right To Spend And Spend And Spend?

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

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Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!

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If You Think You Can - You Can!

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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.

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We Should Never Fear To Negotiate, Nor Negotiate From Fear.

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The Arts And Humanities Teach Us Who We Are And What We Can Be. They Lie At The Very Core Of The Culture Of Which We're A Part.

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I Now Have Absolute Proof That Smoking Even One Marijuana Cigarette Is Equal In Brain Damage To Being On Bikini Island During An H-bomb Blast

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You'd Be Surprised How Much Being A Good Actor Pays Off.

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

The Best Social Reform Program In The World Is A Job.

The Bible Tells Us There Will Be A Time For Peace. But, So Far In This Century, Mankind Has Failed To Find It.

When The Labor Department Is Forced To Relent And Let These Visitors Do This Work It Is Of Course All Legal. But It Makes One Wonder About The Illegal Alien Fuss. Are Great Numbers Of Our Unemployed Really Victims Of The Illegal Alien Invasion Or Are Those Illegal Tourists Actually Doing Work Our Own People Won't Do? One Thing Is Certain In This Hungry World; No Regulation Or Law Should Be Allowed If It Results In Crops Rotting In The Field For Lack Of Harvesters.

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With The Right To Bear Arms Comes A Great Responsibility To Use Caution And Common Sense On Handgun Purchases.

People Don't Start Wars, Governments Do.

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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.

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America Needs Jobs And Opportunity, Not Make-work And Handouts.

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.

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

Nations Crumble From Within When The Citizenry Asks Of Government Those Things Which The Citizenry Might Better Provide For Itself.

But I Also Happen To Be Someone Who Believes In Tithing--the Giving Of A Tenth .

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Of The Four Wars In My Lifetime, None Came About Because The U.s. Was Too Strong.

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Freedom Is The Very Essence Of Our Nation. To Be Sure, Ours Is Not A Perfect Nation. But Even With Our Troubles, We Remain The Beacon Of Hope For Oppressed Peoples Everywhere. Never Give Up The Fight For Freedom - A Fight Which, Though It May Never End, Is The Most Ennobling Known To Man.

Politics And Morality Are Inseparable. And As Morality's Foundation Is Religion, Religion And Politics Are Necessarily Related. We Need Religion As A Guide. We Need It Because We Are Imperfect, And Our Government Needs The Church, Because Only Those Humble Enough To Admit They're Sinners Can Bring To Democracy The Tolerance It Requires In Order To Survive.

I Hope Americans Will Read And Study The Bible In The Coming Year. It's My Firm Belief That The Enduring Values, As I Say, Presented In Its Pages Have A Great Meaning For Each Of Us And For Our Nation.

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

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What Is Important Is That One Strives To Achieve A Goal.

My Basic Rule Is That I Want People Who Don't Want A Job In Government.

Some People Wonder All Their Lives If They've Made A Difference. The Marines Don't Have That Problem.

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I Miss Going To Church, But I Think The Lord Understands.

Stick To Your Dreams And Determine That You're Going To Make Them Come True.

There Is A Mandate To Impose A Voluntary Return To Traditional Values.

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If You're Explaining, You're Losing.

All Systems Are Capitalist. It's Just A Matter Of Who Owns And Controls The Capital -- Ancient King, Dictator, Or Private Individual. We Should Properly Be Looking At The Contrast Between A Free Market System Where Individuals Have The Right To Live Like Kings If They Have The Ability To Earn That Right And Government Control Of The Market System Such As We Find Today In Socialist Nations.

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.

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

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

He Will Long Be Remembered As One Of The Great Christian Thinkers Of Our Century, With A Childlike Faith And A Profound Compassion Toward Others. It Can Rarely Be Said Of An Individual That His Life Touched Many Others And Affected Them For The Better; It Will Be Said Of Francis Schaeffer That His Life Touched Millions Of Souls And Brought Them To The Truth Of Their Creator.

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

Thomas Jefferson Made A Comment About The Presidency And Age. He Said That One Should Not Worry About One's Exact Chronological Age In Reference To His Ability To Perform One's Task. And Ever Since He Told Me That, I Stopped Worrying.

Before I Refuse To Take Your Questions, I Have An Opening Statement.

Public Servants Say, Always With The Best Of Intentions, 'what Greater Service We Could Render If Only We Had A Little More Money And A Little More Power.' But The Truth Is That Outside Of Its Legitimate Function, Government Does Nothing As Well Or As Economically As The Private Sector.

Perhaps We Need Some Outside, Universal Threat To Make Us Recognize This Common Bond. I Occasionally Think How Quickly Our Differences Worldwide Would Vanish If We Were Facing An Alien Threat From Outside This World.

Cars Don't Cause Pollution, Trees Do.

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.

America's Best Days Are Yet To Come.

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

We Don't Celebrate Dependence Day On The Fourth Of July. We Celebrate Independence Day.

I've Spoken Of The Shining City All My Political Life, But I Don't Know If I Ever Quite Communicated What I Saw When I Said It. But In My Mind It Was A Tall, Proud City Built On Rocks Stronger Than Oceans, Windswept, God-blessed, And Teeming With People Of All Kinds Living In Harmony And Peace; A City With Free Ports That Hummed With Commerce And Creativity. And If There Had To Be City Walls, The Walls Had Doors And The Doors Were Open To Anyone With The Will And Heart To Get There. That's How I Saw It, And See It Still.

Unless And Until It Can Be Proven That An Unborn Child Is Not A Living Human Being, Can We Justify Assuming Without Proof That It Isn't? No One Has Yet Offered Such Proof; Indeed, All The Evidence Is To The Contrary.

Tyranny, Like Fog In The Well Known Poem, Often Creeps In Silently 'on Little Cat Feet.'

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.

We Cannot Diminish The Value Of One Category Of Human Life -- The Unborn -- Without Diminishing The Value Of All Human Life . . . There Is No Cause More Important.

The Other Day, Someone Told Me The Difference Between A Democracy And A People's Democracy. It's The Same Difference Between A Jacket And A Straitjacket.

A Strong American Economy Is Essential To The Well-being And Security Of Our Friends And Allies.

We Desire Peace. But Peace Is A Goal, Not A Policy. Lasting Peace Is What We Hope For At The End Of Our Journey. It Doesn't Describe The Steps We Must Take Nor The Paths We Should Follow To Reach That Goal.

Protecting The Rights Of Even The Least Individual Among Us Is Basically The Only Excuse The Government Has For Even Existing.

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

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With Freedom Goes Responsibility, A Responsibility That Can Only Be Met By The Individual Himself.

Our Country Is Great Because It Is Built On Principles Of Self-reliance, Opportunity, Innovation, And Compassion For Others.

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 If He Believes There's A Cook.

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!

Government Exists To Protect Us From Each Other. Where Government Has Gone Beyond Its Limits Is In Deciding To Protect Us From Ourselves.

America Was Founded By People Who Believe That God Is Their Rock Of Safety.

But In The West Today, We See A Free World That Has Achieved A Level Of Prosperity And Well-being Unprecedented In All Human History. In The Communist World, We See Failure, Technological Backwardness, Declining Standards Of Health, Even Want Of The Most Basic Kind - Too Little Food. Even Today, The Soviet Union Still Cannot Feed Itself. After These Four Decades, Then, There Stands Before The Entire World One Great And Inescapable Conclusion: Freedom Leads To Prosperity. Freedom Replaces The Ancient Hatreds Among The Nations With Comity And Peace. Freedom Is The Victor.

America's Economic Strength Depends On Industry's Ability To Improve Productivity And Quality And To Remain On The Cutting Edge Of Technology, And That's Why The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Is So Important.

The National Democratic Leadership Is Going So Far Left, They've Left America. Don't Let Them Bury The American Dream In Their Graveyard Of Gloom And Envy.

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.

Anytime You And I Question The Schemes Of The Do-gooders, We're Denounced As Being Against Their Humanitarian Goals. They Say We're Always "against" Things-we're Never "for" Anything. Well, The Trouble With Our Liberal Friends Is Not That They're Ignorant; It's Just That They Know So Much That Isn't So.

A University Is A Place Where Ancient Tradition Thrives Alongside The Most Revolutionary Ideas. Perhaps As No Other Institution, A University Is Simultaneously Committed To The Day Before Yesterday And The Day After Tomorrow.

I Warned That There Should Be No Place On Earth Where Terrorists Can Rest And Train And Practice Their Deadly Skills. I Meant It. I Said That We Would Act With Others, If Possible, And Alone If Necessary To Ensure That Terrorists Have No Sanctuary Anywhere. Tonight, We Have.

I Have Flown Twice Over Mount St. Helens Out On Our West Coast. I'm Not A Scientist And I Don't Know The Figures, But I Have A Suspicion That That One Little Mountain Has Probably Released More Sulfur Dioxide Into The Atmosphere Of The World Than Has Been Released In The Last Ten Years Of Automobile Driving Or Things Of That Kind That People Are So Concerned About.

We Have Every Right To Dream Heroic Dreams.

There Is A Fundamental Difference Between Separation Of Church And State And Denying The Spiritual Heritage Of This Country. Inscribed On The Jefferson Memorial In Washington, D.c. Are Jefferson's Words, 'the God Who Gave Us Life Gave Us Liberty -- Can The Liberties Of A Nation Be Secure When We Have Removed A Conviction That These Liberties Are The Gift Of God?'

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

No Government Ever Voluntarily Reduces Itself In Size.

Our Military Strength Is A Prerequisite To Peace, But Let It Be Clear We Maintain This Strength In The Hope It Will Never Be Used.

There Seems To Be An Increasing Awareness Of Something We Americans Have Known For Some Time - That The Ten Most Dangerous Words In The English Language Are "hi, I'm From The Government, And I'm Here To Help."

What Has Happened To The Dreams Of The United Nations' Founders? What Has Happened To The Spirit Which Created The United Nations? The Answer Is Clear: Governments Got In The Way Of The Dreams Of The People.

We Are Forever Indebted To Those Who Have Given Their Lives That We Might Be Free.

May Every Day Be A New Beginning, And Every Dawn Bring Us Closer To That Shining City Upon A Hill.

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.

Freedom Is A Fragile Thing And Is Never More Than One Generation Away From Extinction. It Is Not Ours By Inheritance; It Must Be Fought For And Defended Constantly By Each Generation, For It Comes Only Once To A People. Those Who Have Known Freedom, And Then Lost It, Have Never Known It Again.

There Are No Words To Express The Extraordinary Strength And Character Of This Breed Of People We Call American. They Are The Kind Of Men And Women Tom Paine Had In Mind When He Wrote, During The Darkest Days Of The American Revolution, We Have It In Our Power To Begin The World Over Again.

It Should Be The Right Of The Individual To Decide Whether He Wants To Belong To A Union.

The Greatest Leader Is Not Necessarily The One Who Does The Greatest Things. He Is The One That Gets The People To Do The Greatest Things.

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