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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.

-Ronald Reagan

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I've Long Believed That

Ronald Reagan

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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.

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We're Approaching The End Of A Bloody Century Plagued By A Terrible Political Invention, Totalitarianism. Optimism Comes Less Easily Today, Not Because Democracy Is Less Vigorous, But Because Democracy's Enemies Have Refined Their Instruments Of Repression.

In Israel, Free Men And Women Are Every Day Demonstrating The Power Of Courage And Faith. Back In 1948 When Isreal Was Founded, Pundits Claimed The New Country Could Never Survive. Today, No One Questions That. Israel Is A Land Of Stability And Democracy In A Region Of Tyranny And Unrest.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Government Is Not A Solution To Our Problem, Government Is The Problem. ... Government Does Not Solve Problems; It Subsidizes Them. 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. If It Stops Moving, Subsidize It. ... The Problem Is Not That People Are Taxed Too Little, The Problem Is That Government Spends Too Much.

Every Honor Is Appropriate For The Courageous Americans Who Made The Supreme Sacrifice For Our Nation At Pearl Harbor And In The Many Battles That Followed In World War Ii. Their Sacrifice Was For A Cause, Not For Conquest; For A World That Would Be Safe For Future Generations. Their Devotion Must Never Be Forgotten.

Government Is Not The Answer To The Problem - It Is The Problem.

Simple Morality Dictates That Unless And Until Someone Can Prove The Unborn Human Is Not Alive, We Must Give It The Benefit Of The Doubt And Assume It Is (alive). And, Thus, It Should Be Entitled To Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Pursuit Of Happiness

Constructive Trade, The Two-way Exchange Of Goods And Services, Is The Most Efficient And Logical Way For Each Nation . . . To Build A Stable Prosperity, A Prosperity Based Not On Aid, But On Mutually Beneficial Economic Contacts.

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.

I Believe No Challenge Is More Important To The Character Of America Than Restoring The Right To Life To All Human Beings.

The Real Question Today Is Not When Human Life Begins, But, What Is The Value Of Human Life? The Abortionist Who Reassembles The Arms And Legs Of A Tiny Baby To Make Sure All Its Parts Have Been Torn From Its Mother's Body Can Hardly Doubt Whether It Is A Human Being. The Real Question For Him And For All Of Us Is Whether That Tiny Human Life Has A God-given Right To Be Protected By The Law - The Same Right We Have.

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.

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

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. As We Gather Around Our Dining Room Tables For The Midday Meal, Let Us Thank God For Life And The Blessings He's Put Before Us. High Among Them Are Our Families, Our Freedom, And The Opportunities Of A New Year.

Fascism Was Really The Basis For The New Deal. It Was Mussolini's Success In Italy, With His Government-directed Economy, That Led The Early New Dealers To Say "but Mussolini Keeps The Trains Running On Time.

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 And I Have A Rendezvous With Destiny. We Will Preserve For Our Children This, The Last Best Hope Of Man On Earth, Or We Will Sentence Them To Take The First Step Into A Thousand Years Of Darkness. If We Fail, At Least Let Our Children And Our Children’s Children Say Of Us We Justified Our Brief Moment Here. We Did All That Could Be Done.

If We Look To The Answer As To Why For So Many Years We Achieved So Much, Prospered As No Other People On Earth, It Was Because Here In This Land We Unleashed The Energy And Individual Genius Of Man To A Greater Extent Than Has Ever Been Done Before. 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 That Price.

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.

Shouldn't Someone Tag Mr. Kennedy's Bold New Imaginative Program With Its Proper Age? Under The Tousled Boyish Haircut Is Still Old Karl Marx - First Launched A Century Ago. There Is Nothing New In The Idea Of A Government Being Big Brother.

Our Liberty Springs From And Depends Upon An Abiding Faith In God.

The American Taxing Structure, The Purpose Of Which Was To Serve The People, Began Instead To Serve The Insatiable Appetite Of Government. If You Will Forgive Me, You Know Someone Has Once Likened Government To A Baby. It Is An Alimentary Canal With An Appetite At One End And No Sense Of Responsibility At The Other.

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

Government Steals From The Needy And Gives To The Greedy

When Our Founding Fathers Passed The First Amendment, They Sought To Protect Churches From Government Interference. They Never Intended To Construct A Wall Of Hostility Between Government And The Concept Of Religious Belief Itself.

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

The [carter] Administration Doesn't Know The Difference Between A Diplomat And A Doormat.

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.

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.

. . . 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.

You Are Worried About What Man Has Done And Is Doing To This Magical Planet That God Gave Us. And I Share Your Concern. What Is A Conservative After All But One Who Conserves, One Who Is Committed To Protecting And Holding Close The Things By Which We Live...and We Want To Protect And Conserve The Land On Which We Live - Our Countryside, Our Rivers And Mountains, Our Plains And Meadows And Forests. This Is Our Patrimony. This Is What We Leave To Our Children. And Our Great Moral Responsibility Is To Leave It To Them Either As We Found It Or Better Than We Found It.

I Usually Never Walk By A Microphone.

One Of The Traditional Methods Of Imposing Statism Or Socialism On A People Has Been By Way Of Medicine.

Every New Day Begins With Possibilities.

New Possibilities

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?

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.

The Glory Of This Land Has Been Its Capacity For Transcending The Moral Evils Of Our Past. For Example, The Long Struggle Of Minority Citizens For Equal Rights, Once A Source Of Disunity And Civil War, Is Now A Point Of Pride For All Americans. We Must Never Go Back. There Is No Room For Racism, Anti-semitism, Or Other Forms Of Ethnic And Racial Hatred In This Country.

The Montreal Protocol Is A Model Of Cooperation. It Is A Product Of The Recognition And International Consensus That Ozone Depletion Is A Global Problem, Both In Terms Of Its Causes And Its Effects. The Protocol Is The Result Of An Extraordinary Process Of Scientific Study, Negotiations Among Representatives Of The Business And Environmental Communities, And International Diplomacy. It Is A Monumental Achievement.

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.

You Will Be Competing Against Athletes From Many Nations. But, Most Important, You Are Competing Against Yourself. All We Expect Is For You To Do Your Very Best, To Push Yourself Just One Second Faster, One Notch Higher, One Inch Further.

I Don't Believe In A Government That Protects Us From Ourselves.

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

'trust-me' Government Asks That We Concentrate Our Hopes And Dreams On One Man, That We Trust Him To Do What's Best For Us. My View Of Government Places Trust Not In One Person Or One Party, But In Those Values That Transcend Persons And Parties.

America's Best Days Are Yet To Come.

Life Involves Effort And Growth. You Won't Grow By Watching A Situation Comedy, Though You Can Grow By Reading A Book. I Hope We Aren't Becoming A Nation Of Watchers, Because What Made Us Great Is That We've Always Been A Nation Of Doers.

Meaningful Work, Not Welfare, Is Every American's Hope, And We Have A Continuing Responsibility To Make Those Hopes A Lasting Reality.

We Cannot Survive As A Free Nation When Some Men Decide That Others Are Not Fit To Live And Should Be Abandoned To Abortion Or Infanticide...t Here Is No Cause More Important For Preserving That Freedom Than Affirming The Transcendent Right To Life Of All Human Beings, The Right Without Which No Other Rights Have Any Meaning.

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 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.

Honey, I Forgot To Duck

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.

We Can't Help Everyone, But Everyone Can Help Someone.

Trees Cause Pollution.

He Struck A Mighty Blow For Equality, Freedom And The American Way Of Life. Jackie Robinson Was A Good Citizen, A Great Man, And A True American Champion.

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?'

How Can We Not Believe In The Greatness Of America? How Can We Not Do What Is Right And Needed To Preserve This Last Best Hope Of Man On Earth? After All Our Struggles To Restore America, To Revive Confidence In Our Country, Hope For Our Future - After All Our Hard-won Victories Earned Through The Patience And Courage Of Every Citizen - We Cannot, Must Not, And Will Not Turn. We Will Finish Our Job. How Could We Do Less? We're Americans.

The Societies Which Have Achieved The Most Spectacular Broad-based Economic Progress In The Shortest Period Of Time Are Not The Most Tightly Controlled, Not Necessarily The Biggest In Size, Or The Wealthiest In Natural Resources. No, What Unites Them All Is Their Willingness To Believe In The Magic Of The Marketplace.

Freedom Is The Right To Question And Change The Established Way Of Doing Things.

Freedom Liberty

No Matter How Big And Powerful Government Gets, And The Many Services It Provides, It Can Never Take The Place Of Volunteers.

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.

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

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

A Recession Is When Your Neighbor Loses His Job. A Depression Is When You Lose Yours.

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.

I Sometimes Think If Someone Appealed The Ten Commandments To Some Of Our Courts, They Would Rule - 'thou Shalt Not, Unless You Feel Strongly To The Contrary'.

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.

For Us To Ignore By Inaction The Slaughter Of American Civilians And American Soldiers, Whether In Nightclubs Or Airline Terminals, Is Simply Not In The American Tradition. Self-defense Is Not Only Our Right, It Is Our Duty.

For A Time, We Forgot The American Dream Isn't One Of Making Government Bigger, It's Keeping Faith With The Mighty Spirit Of Free People Under God

I've Always Believed That This Blessed Land Was Set Apart In A Special Way, That Some Divine Plan Placed This Great Continent Here Between The Oceans To Be Found By People From Every Corner Of The Earth Who Had A Special Love For Freedom And The Courage To Uproot Themselves, Leave Homeland And Friends, To Come To A Strange Land. And Coming Here They Created Something New In All The History Of Mankind-a Land Where Man Is Not Beholden To Government, Government Is Beholden To Man.

As Government Expands, Liberty Contracts.

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.

The Best Minds Are Not In Government. If Any Were, Business Would Steal Them Away.

Preservation Of Our Environment Is Not A Liberal Or Conservative Challenge, It's Common Sense.

Our Government Needs The Church, Because Only Those Humble Enough To Admit They're Sinners Can Bring Democracy The Tolerance It Requires To Survive

With Our Eyes Fixed On The Future, But Recognizing The Realities Of Today, We Will Achieve Our Destiny To Be As A Shining City On A Hill For All Mankind To See.

The District Of Columbia Is One Gigantic Ear.

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

I Favor The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 And It Must Be Enforced At Gunpoint If Necessary.

The True Lesson Of The Vietnam War Is: Certainty Of Purpose And Ruthlessness Of Execution Win Wars.

Deficits, As I've Often Said, Aren't Caused By Too Little Taxing, They're Caused By Too Much Spending. Presidents Can't Appropriate A Dollar Of Tax Payers Money, Only Congressmen Can; And Congress Is Susceptible To All Sorts Of Influences That Have Nothing To Do With Good Government.

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.

We Don't Have A Trillion-dollar Debt Because We Haven't Taxed Enough; We Have A Trillion-dollar Debt Because We Spend Too Much.

Some Years Ago, The Federal Government Declared War On Poverty, And Poverty Won.

Government Is The People's Business And Every Man, Woman And Child Becomes A Shareholder With The First Penny Of Tax Paid.

America Was Founded By People Who Believe That God Was Their Rock Of Safety. I Recognize We Must Be Cautious In Claiming That God Is On Our Side, But I Think It's All Right To Keep Asking If We're On His Side.

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

The War In Vietnam Threatened To Tear Our Society Apart, And The Political And Philosophical Disagreements That Separated Each Side Continue, To Some Extent. It's Been Said That These Memorials Reflect A Hunger For Healing.

Terrorism Is The Preferred Weapon Of Weak And Evil Men.

Today We Did What We Had To Do. They Counted On America To Be Passive. They Counted Wrong.

Now, I Happen To Be An Optimist.

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.

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.

Our Country And State Have A Special Obligation To Work Toward The Stabilization Of Our Own Population So As To Credibly Lead Other Parts Of The World Toward Population Stabilization.

In Our Observances This Memorial Day, We Honor The Brave Americans Who Paid The Highest Price For Their Commitment To The Ideals Of Peace, Freedom, And Justice. Our Debt To Them Can Be Paid Only By Our Own Recommitment To Preserving Those Same Ideals.

History Teaches That Wars Begin When Governments Believe The Price Of Aggression Is Cheap. To Keep The Peace, We And Our Allies Must Be Strong Enough To Convince Any Potential Aggressor That War Could Bring No Benefit, Only Disaster.

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.

Our Moral Imperative Is To Work With All Our Powers For That Day When The Children Of The World Grow Up Without The Fear Of Nuclear War.

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

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.

We Can't Build A Safer World With Honorable Intentions And Good Will Alone. Achieving The Fundamental Goals Our Nation Seeks In World Affairs - Peace, Human Rights, Economics Progress National Independence And International Stability - Means Supporting Our Friends And Defending Our Interests.

There Were So Many Candidates On The Platform That There Were Not Enough Promises To Go Around.

We're Entering Our Third Century Now, But It's Wrong To Judge Our Nation By Its Years. The Calendar Can't Measure America Because We Were Meant To Be An Endless Experiment In Freedom, With No Limits To Our Reaches, No Boundaries To What We Can Do, No End Point To Our Hopes.

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

We Are Not A Warlike People. Nor Is Our History Filled With Tales Of Aggressive Adventures And Imperialism, Which Might Come As A Shock To Some Of The Placard Painters In Our Modern Demonstrations. The Lesson Of Vietnam, I Think, Should Be That Never Again Will Young Americans Be Asked To Fight And Possibly Die For A Cause Unless That Cause Is So Meaningful That We, As A Nation, Pledge Our Full Resources To Achieve Victory As Quickly As Possible.

While Other [military] Alliances Have Been Formed To Win Wars, Our Fundamental Purpose Is To Prevent War While Preserving And Extending The Frontiers Of Freedom.

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

Indeed, It Is An Indisputable Fact That All The Complex And Horrendous Questions Confronting Us At Home And Worldwide Have Their Answer In That Single Book [the Bible].

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

The Same Government That Requires A Taxpaying Citizen To Document Every Statement On His Tax Return Decrees That Questioning A Welfare Applicant Demeans And Humiliates Him.

Don't Be Afraid To See What You See.

Yes, The Deficit Doctors Have Their Scalpels Out All Right, But They're Not Poised Over The Budget. That's As Fat As Ever And Getting Fatter. What They're Ready To Operate On Is Your Wallet.

We Cannot Escape Our Destiny, Nor Should We Try To Do So. The Leadership Of The Free World Was Thrust Upon Us Two Centuries Ago In That Little Hall Of Philadelphia. In The Days Following World War Ii, When The Economic Strength And Power Of America Was All That Stood Between The World And The Return To The Dark Ages, Pope Pius Xii Said, 'the American People Have A Great Genius For Splendid And Unselfish Actions. Into The Hands Of America God Has Placed The Destinies Of An Afflicted Mankind.' We Are Indeed, And We Are Today, The Last Best Hope Of Man On Earth.

It Was Leadership Here At Home That Gave Us Strong American Influence Abroad, And The Collapse Of Imperial Communism. Great Nations Have Responsibilities To Lead, And We Should Always Be Cautious Of Those Who Would Lower Our Profile, Because They Might Just Wind Up Lowering Our Flag.

Let's Face It.., Our Current [immigration Control] System Is Like A Busy Intersection Without A Traffic Cop: Sure There Are Laws On The Books, But Absent Enforcement, There Are Too Many Accidents.

Our Tax Policy Is Engineered By People Who View Tax As A Means Of Achieving Changes In Our Social Structure.

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

Our Whole System Of Government Is Based On "we The People," But If We The People Don't Pay Attention To What's Going On, We Have No Right To Bellyache Or Squawk When Things Go Wrong.

Let It Never Be Said Of This Generation Of Americans That We Became So Obsessed With Failure That We Refused To Take Risks That Could Further The Cause Of Peace And Freedom In The World.

This Generation

This Country Was Founded And Built By People With Great Dreams And The Courage To Take Great Risks.

Welfare's Purpose Should Be To Eliminate, As Far As Possible, The Need For Its Own Existence.

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!

The Time Has Come To Match Outgo To Income, Instead Of Always Doing It The Other Way Around.

The Signs Of The Vietnam War Protestors Said "make Love Not War!" It Didn't Seem To Me That They Were Capable Of Either.

Our Reluctance For Conflict Should Not Be Misjudged As A Failure Of Will.

My Dream Is That You Will Travel The Road Ahead With Liberty's Lamp Guiding Your Steps And Opportunity's Arm Steadying Your Way.

When Cruelty Is Inflicted On Innocent People, It Discredits Whatever Cause.

There Are No Great Limits To Growth Because There Are No Limits Of Human Intelligence, Imagination, And Wonder.

Intelligence Services

I'm Proud Of Having Been One Of The First To Recognize That States And The Federal Government Have A Duty To Protect Our Natural Resources From The Damaging Effects Of Pollution That Can Accompany Industrial Development.

I Never Drink Coffee At Lunch. I Find It Keeps Me Awake For The Afternoon.

Regimes Planted By Bayonets Do Not Take Root... 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, For The Ultimate Determinant In The Struggle That's Now Going On In The World Will Not Be Bombs And Rockets But A Test Of Wills And Ideas, A Trial Of Spiritual Resolve, The Values We Hold, The Beliefs We Cherish, The Ideals To Which We Are Dedicated.

I've Always Thought New Year's Day Was An Especially American Tradition, Full Of The Optimism And Hope We're Famous For In Our Daily Lives -- An Energy And Confidence We Call The American Spirit. Perhaps Because We Know We Control Our Own Destiny, We Believe Deep Down Inside That Working Together We Can Make Each New Year Better Than The Old.

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.

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.

Eighty Percent Of Air Pollution Comes From Plants And Trees.

If You Can't Summarize An Issue On One Page, You Don't Understand The Issue Well Enough.

There Is No Love Like A Mother’s - She Who Carries The Child That God Knits In The Womb, She Who Nourishes And Guides, She Who Teaches And Inspires, She Who Gives Of Her Heart And Soul And Self For The Good And The Happiness Of Her Children And Her Family.

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.

They Don't Subscribe To Our Sense Of Morality; They Don't Believe In An Afterlife; They Don't Believe In A God Or Religion. And The Only Morality They Recognize, Therefore, Is What Will Advance The Cause Or Socialism.

I'm Not A Politician By Profession. I Am A Citizen Who Decided I Had To Be Personally Involved In Order To Stand Up For My Own Values And Beliefs. My Candidacy Is Based On My Record, And For That Matter, My Entire Life.

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've Been Blessed With The Opportunity To Stand For Something - For Liberty And Freedom And Fairness. And These Are Things Worth Fighting For, Worth Devoting Our Lives To.

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

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're Not Bound By That Same Limitation? We Must Act Today In Order To Preserve Tomorrow.

Throughout Our History, We Americans Have Been Willing To Meet Great Challenges And Do What Is Right When Our Destiny Demanded It.

The Ongoing Migration Of Persons To The United States In Violation Of Our Laws Is A Serious National Problem Detrimental To The Interests Of The United States.

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.

I Think People Have A Need To Feel Good About The Country They Live In, But What's Happening, I Think, Is That That Need - Which Is A Good Thing - Is Getting Manipulated And Exploited.

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.

In America, Our Origins Matter Less Than Our Destination, And That Is What Democracy Is All About.

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

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

More Than A Decade Ago, A Supreme Court Decision Literally Wiped Off The Books Of Fifty States Statutes Protecting The Rights Of Unborn Children. Abortion On Demand Now Takes The Lives Of Up To 1.5 Million Unborn Children A Year. Human Life Legislation Ending This Tragedy Will Some Day Pass The Congress, And You And I Must Never Rest Until It Does. Unless And Until It Can Be Proven That The Unborn Child Is Not A Living Entity, Then Its Right To Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness Must Be Protected.

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

Surround Yourself With Great People; Delegate Authority; Get Out Of The Way

Government Must Not Supersede The Will Of The People Or The Responsibilities Of The People. The Function Of Government Is Not To Confer Happiness, But To Give Men The Opportunity To Work Out Happiness For Themselves.

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.

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

Many A Man Has Failed Because He Had His Wishbone Where His Backbone Should Have Been.

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.

The Thought Of Being President Frightens Me And I Do Not Think I Want The Job.

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.

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.

History Shows That When The Taxes Of A Nation Approach About 20 Percent Of The People's Income, There Begins To Be A Lack Of Respect For Government.... When It Reaches 25 Percent, There Comes An Increase In Lawlessness.

To This Day, America Is Still The Abiding Alternative To Tyranny. This Is Our Purpose In The World, Nothing More And Nothing Less.

Perhaps There Is A Simple Answer -- Not An Easy Answer -- But Simple: If You And I Have The Courage To Tell Our Elected Officials That We Want Our National Policy Based On What We Know In Our Hearts Is Morally Right.

Isn't Our Choice Really Not One Of Left Or Right, But Of Up Or Down? Down Through The Welfare State To Statism, To More And More Government Largesse Accompanied Always By More Government Authority, Less Individual Liberty, And Ultimately, Totalitarianism, Always Advanced As For Our Own Good. The Alternative Is The Dream Conceived By Our Founding Fathers, Up To The Ultimate In Individual Freedom Consistent With An Orderly Society.

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.

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

Baseball Is Our National Pastime, That Is If You Discount Political Campaigning.

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.

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

You Can’t Tax Business. Business Doesn’t Pay Taxes. It Collects Taxes.

Congressional Mistakes Have Dramatically Increased Immigration Through A Series Of What I Believe Were Ill-advised Actions Going Back To 1965 When The Basic Notions Of Our Immigration Laws Were Revised. In 1990, Congress Opened The Floodgates By Passing A 35-percent Increase In Legal Immigration.

Today A Newcomer To The State Is Automatically Eligible For Our Many Aid Programs The Moment He Crosses The Border.

The Challenge Of Statesmanship Is To Have The Vision To Dream Of A Better, Safer World And The Courage, Persistence, And Patience To Turn That Dream Into Reality.

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.

No Nation In History Has Ever Survived A Tax Burden That Reached A Third Of Its National Income.

Where Free Unions And Collective Bargaining Are Forbidden, Freedom Is Lost.

Are You Better Off Today Than You Were Four Years Ago?

Some May Try To Tell Us That This Is The End Of An Era. But What They Overlook Is That In America, Every Day Is A New Beginning. For This Is The Land That Has Never Become, But Is Always In The Act Of Becoming.

I Hope We Once Again Have Reminded People That Man Is Not Free Unless Government Is Limited. There's A Clear Cause And Effect Here That Is As Neat And Predictable As A Law Of Physics: As Government Expands, Liberty Contracts.

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.

America Stands Unique In The World: The Only Country Not Founded On Race But On A Way, An Ideal. Not In Spite Of But Because Of Our Polyglot Background, We Have Had All The Strength In The World. That Is The American Way.

Isn't It Interesting That All Of Those People Who Support The Choice Of Abortion Have Already Been Born?

If Politics Were A Musical, It Would Be "promises, Promises".

There Can Be No Security Anywhere In The Free World If There Is No Fiscal And Economic Stability Within The United States.

If Our Planes Were Shot Down, Yes, They's Wake Me Right Away. If The Other Fellows' Were Shot Down, Why Wake Me Up?

American Politics

This Administration Is Totally Colorblind.

It Doesn't Require Expropriation Or Confiscation Of Private Property Or Business To Impose Socialism On A People. What Does It Mean Whether You Hold The Deed Or The Title To Your Business Or Property If The Government Holds The Power Of Life And Death Over That Business Or Property?

Please Tell Me You're Republicans.

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 Bird On A Tether, No Matter How Long The Rope, Can Always Be Pulled Back.

The Federalist Society Is Changing The Culture Of Our Nation's Law Schools. You Are Returning The Values And Concepts Of Law As Our Founders Understood Them To Scholarly Dialogue, And Through That Dialogue, To Our Legal Institutions.

Law And Freedom Must Be Indivisible Partners. For Without Law, There Can Be No Freedom, Only Choas And Disorder; And Without Freedom, Law Is But A Cynical Veneer For Injustice And Oppression.

When Plo Sniper Fire Is Followed By 14 Hours Of Israeli Bombardment, That's Stretching The Definition Of Defensive Action Too Far.

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.

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