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You And I Know And Do Not Believe That Life Is So Dear And Peace So Sweet As To Be Purchased At The Price Of Chains And Slavery. If Nothing In Life Is Worth Dying For, When Did This Begin-just In The Face Of This Enemy? Or Should Moses Have Told The Children Of Israel To Live In Slavery Under The Pharaohs? Should Christ Have Refused The Cross? Should The Patriots At Concord Bridge Have Thrown Down Their Guns And Refused To Fire The Shot Heard 'round The World? The Martyrs Of History Were Not Fools, And Our Honored Dead Who Gave Their Lives To Stop The Advance Of The Nazis Didn't Die In Vain.

-Ronald Reagan

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You And I Know

Ronald Reagan

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You And I Know And Do Not Believe That Life Is So Dear And Peace So Sweet As To Be Purchased At The Price Of Chains And Slavery. If Nothing In Life Is Worth Dying For, When Did This Begin-just In The Face Of This Enemy? Or Should Moses Have Told The Children Of Israel To Live In Slavery Under The Pharaohs? Should Christ Have Refused The Cross? Should The Patriots At Concord Bridge Have Thrown Down Their Guns And Refused To Fire The Shot Heard 'round The World? The Martyrs Of History Were Not Fools, And Our Honored Dead Who Gave Their Lives To Stop The Advance Of The Nazis Didn't Die In Vain.

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More From Ronald Reagan

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

I Don't Have Too Much Time For Fiction.

If We've Learned Any Lessons During The Past Few Decades, Perhaps The Most Important Is That Preservation Of Our Environment Is Not A Partisan Challenge; It's Common Sense. Our Physical Health, Our Social Happiness, And Our Economic Well-being Will Be Sustained Only By All Of Us Working In Partnership As Thoughtful, Effective Stewards Of Our Natural Resources.

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.

Socialists Ignore The Side Of Man That Is The Spirit. They Can Provide You Shelter, Fill Your Belly With Bacon And Beans, Treat You When You're Ill, All The Things Guaranteed To A Prisoner Or A Slave. They Don't Understand That We Also Dream.

People Who Think A Tax Boost Will Cure Inflation Are The Same Ones Who Believe Another Drink Will Cure A Hangover.

Together, Let Us Make This A New Beginning. Let Us Make A Commitment To Care For The Needy, To Teach Our Children The Values And The Virtues Handed Down To Us By Our Families, To Have The Courage To Defend Those Values And The Willingess To Sacrifice For Them. Let Us Pledge To Restore, In Our Time, The American Spirit Of Voluntary Service, Of Cooperation, Of Private And Community Initiative, A Spirit That Flows Like A Deep And Mighty River Through The History Of Our Nation.

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

A Truly Successful Army Is One That, Because Of Its Strength And Ability And Dedication, Will Not Be Called Upon To Fight, For No One Will Dare To Provoke It.

I Think There Are Some Things ... That May Even Be Distorted In The Practice, Such As Some Affirmative Action Programs Becoming Quota Systems. And I'm Old Enough To Remember When Quotas Existed In The United States For The Purpose Of Discrimination, And I Don't Want To See That Happen Again.

Free Enterprise Is A Rough And Competitive Game. It Is A Hell Of A Lot Better Than A Government Monopoly.

Where There's Liberty, Art Succeeds.

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 Know That This Mad Dog Of The Middle East Has A Goal Of A World Revolution. (on Muammar Qaddafi Of Libya)

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.

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

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.

Freedom Prospers Only Where The Blessings Of God Are Avidly Sought, And Humbly Accepted.

Here's My Strategy On The Cold War: We Win, They Lose.

As We Celebrate Thanksgiving, We Should Reflect On The Full Meaning Of This Day As We Enjoy The Fellowship That Is So Much A Part Of The Holiday Festivities. Searching Our Hearts, We Should Ask What We Can Do As Individuals To Demonstrate Our Gratitude To God For All He Has Done. Such Reflection Can Only Add To The Significance Of This Precious Day Of Remembrance.

I Saw Them; There Is Nothing Beautiful About Them, Just That They Are A Little Higher Than The Others. Referring To One Of The Oldest And Loveliest Groves Of Redwoods, Showing Insensitivity To Their Magnificence.

If It's To Be A Bloodbath, Let It Be Now. Appeasement Is Not The Answer.

To Grasp And Hold A Vision, That Is The Very Essence Of Successful Leadership-not Only On The Movie Set Where I Learned It, But Everywhere.

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.

One Day We Will Spend Our Sunset Years Telling Our Children And Our Children's Children What It Was Once Like In The United States Where Men Were Free.

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.

I Welcome This Chance To Further Strengthen The Unbreakable Ties Between The United States And Israel And To Assure You Of Our Commitment To Israel's Security And Well-being. Israel And America May Be Thousands Of Miles Apart, But We Are Philosophical Neighbors Sharing A Strong Commitment To Democracy And The Rule Of Law. What We Hold In Common Are The Bonds Of Trust And Friendship, Qualities That In Our Eyes Make Israel A Great Nation. No People Have Fought Longer, Struggled Harder, Or Sacrificed More Than Yours In Order To Survive, To Grow, And To Live In Freedom

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

The Future Belongs To The Free.

In This Springtime Of Hope, Some Lights Seem Eternal; America's Is.

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.

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.

You Know, By The Time You Reach My Age, You've Made Plenty Of Mistakes If You've Lived Your Life Properly. So You Learn. You Put Things In Perspective. You Pull Your Energies Together. You Change. You Go Forward. My Fellow Americans, I Have A Great Deal That I Want To Accomplish With You And For You Over The Next Two Years. And, The Lord Willing, That's Exactly What I Intend To Do.

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

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 Know All The Bad Things That Happened In That War. I Was In Uniform Four Years Myself.

I Deplore The Tendency, In Some Institutions, To Go Directly Toward Training For A Trade Or Profession Or Something And Ignoring The Liberal Arts. It Is The Foundation Of Education.

In An Ironic Sense, Karl Marx Was Right. We Are Witnessing Today A Great Revolutionary Crisis, A Crisis Where The Demands Of The Economic Order Are Conflicting Directly With Those Of The Political Order. But The Crisis Is Happening Not In The . . . West, But In The Home Of Marxism-leninism, The Soviet Union. It Is The Soviet Union That Runs Against The Tide Of History By Denying Human Freedom And Human Dignity To Its Citizens.

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

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.

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

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.

We Must Act Today In Order To Preserve Tomorrow

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.

Freedom-loving People Around The World Must Say . . . I Am A Refugee In A Crowded Boat Foundering Off The Coast Of Vietnam. I Am Laotian, A Cambodian, A Cuban, And A Miskito Indian In Nicaragua. I, Too, Am A Potential Victim Of Totalitarianism.

The District Of Columbia Is One Gigantic Ear.

I Have Decided That Whatever Time I May Have Left Is Left For Him.

Our Nation Will Prosper Or Decline In Direct Proportion To Our Selection Of Leaders Who Are Guided By The Holy Spirit. If We Fail To Select Godly Leaders Our Destiny Will Surely Be As That Of The Roman Empire.

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

Margaret Thatcher - This Great Lady Has Not Only Served Her Country Well, She Has Served The Free World Well.

The Task That Has Fallen To Us As Americans Is To Move The Conscience Of The World, To Keep Alive The Hope And Dream Of Freedom. For If We Fail Or Falter, There'll Be No Place For The World's Oppressed To Flee To. This Is Not A Role We Sought. We Preach No Manifest Destiny. But Like The Americans Who Brought A New Nation Into The World 200 Years Ago, History Has Asked Much Of Us In Our Time. Much We've Already Given; Much More We Must Be Prepared To Give.

Do What's Right And You'll Please Some Of The People And Astound The Rest.

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.

The Nra Believes America's Laws Were Made To Be Obeyed And That Our Constitutional Liberties Are Just As Important Today As 200 Years Ago. And By The Way, The Constitution Does Not Say Government Shall Decree The Right To Keep And Bear Arms. The Constitution Says 'the Right Of The People To Keep And Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed.'

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.

Most Of My Dreams Came True.

Dreams Came True

Information Is The Oxygen Of The Modern Age.

Free Enterprise Has Done More To Reduce Poverty Than All The Government Programs Dreamed Up By Democrats.

And We're Also Remembering The Guiding Light Of Our Judeo-christian Tradition. All Of Us Here Today Are Descendants Of Abraham, Isaac, And Jacob, Sons And Daughters Of The Same God. I Believe We Are Bound By Faith In Our God, By Our Love For Family And Neighborhood, By Our Deep Desire For A More Peaceful World, And By Our Commitment To Protect The Freedom Which Is Our Legacy As Americans. These Values Have Given A Renewed Sense Of Worth To Our Lives. They Are Infusing America With Confidence And Optimism That Many Thought We Had Lost.

Revolution Means Democracy In Today's World, Not The Enslavement Of Peoples To The Corrupt And Degrading Horrors Of Totalitarianism

Live Simply, Love Generously, Care Deeply, Speak Kindly, Leave The Rest To God.

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

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.

Either You Will Control Your Government, Or Government Will Control You.

We're Americans, And We Have A Rendezvous With Destiny . . . No People Who Have Ever Lived On This Earth Have Fought Harder, Paid A Higher Price For Freedom, Or Done More To Advance The Dignity Of Man Than Americans.

I've Often Wondered About The Shyness Of Some Of Us In The West About Standing For These Ideals That Have Done So Much To Ease The Plight Of Man And The Hardships Of Our Imperfect World. Let Us Be Shy No Longer. Let Us Go To Our Strength. Let Us Offer Hope. Let Us Tell The World That A New Age Is Not Only Possible, But Probable.

I Have Seen The Rise And Fall Of Nazi Tyranny, The Subsequent Cold War And The Nuclear Nightmare That For Fifty Years Haunted The Dreams Of Children Everywhere. During That Time My Generation Defeated Totalitarianism. As A Result, Your World Is Poised For Better Tomorrows. What Will You Do On Your Journey?

You And I Are Told We Must Choose Between A Left Or Right, But I Suggest There Is No Such Thing As A Left Or Right. There Is Only An Up Or Down. Up To Man's Age-old Dream -- The Maximum Of Individual Freedom Consistent With Order --or Down To The Ant Heap Of Totalitarianism. Regardless Of Their Sincerity, Their Humanitarian Motives, Those Who Would Sacrifice Freedom For Security Have Embarked On This Downward Path.

We Are Going To Put An End To The Notion That The American Taxpayer Exists To Fund The Federal Government.

We Must Realize That No Arsenal Or No Weapon In 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. It Is A Weapon That We As Americans Do Have. Let That Be Understood By Those Who Practice Terrorism And Prey Upon Their Neighbors. As For The Enemies Of Freedom, Those Who Are Potential Adversaries, They Will Be Reminded That Peace Is The Highest Aspiration Of The American People. We Will Negotiate For It, Sacrifice For It; We Will Not Surrender For It, Now Or Ever. We Are Americans.

I Don't Have To Tell You How Fragile This Precious Gift Of Freedom Is. Every Time We Hear, Watch, Or Read The News, We Are Reminded That Liberty Is A Rare Commodity In This World.

Veterans And Freedom

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?'

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

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.

Governments Don't Reduce Deficits By Raising Taxes On The People; Governments Reduce Deficits By Controlling Spending And Stimulating New Wealth.

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

It Should Be Clear To Everyone That The Nation's Steadfast Policy Should Afford Every American Of Working Age A Realistic Opportunity To Acquire The Ownership And Control Of Some Meaningful Form Of Property In A Growing National Economy.

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

Government Welfare

When We Speak Of Peace, We Should Not Mean Just The Absence Of War. True Peace Rests On The Pillars Of Individual Freedom, Human Rights, National Self-determination, And Respect For The Rule Of Law.

The Most Confident Person In Any Transaction Always Introduces Themselves First.

I Do Not Believe In A Fate That Will Fall On Us No Matter What We Do. I Do Believe In A Fate That Will Fall On Us If We Do Nothing.

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

Trees Cause Pollution.

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.

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

When I've Heard All I Need To Make A Decision, I Don't Take A Vote. I Make A Decision.

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

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

They [the Soviet Union] Are The Focus Of Evil In The Modern World.

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

It's True Hard Work Never Killed Anybody, But I Figure, Why Take The Chance?

Our Goal Is Peace. We Can Gain That Peace By Strengthening Our Alliances, By Speaking Candidly About The Dangers Before Us, By Assuring Potential Adversaries Of Our Seriousness, By Actively Pursuing Every Chance Of Honest And Fruitful Negotiation.

In Hollywood, As I've Often Said, If You Don't Sing Or Dance, You End Up As An After-dinner Speaker.

Young Americans Must Never Again Be Sent To Fight And Die Unless We Are Prepared To Let Them Win.

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

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

The Men Of Normandy Had Faith That What They Were Doing Was Right, Faith That They Fought For All Humanity, Faith That A Just God Would Grant Them Mercy On This Beachhead Or The Next. It Was The Deep Knowledge - And Pray God We Have Not Lost It - That There Is A Profound Moral Difference Between The Use Of Force For Liberation And The Use Of Force For Conquest.

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

I Can't Claim To Know The Words Of All The National Anthems In The World, But I Don't Know Of Any Other That Ends With A Question And A Challenge As Ours Does: Does That Flag Still Wave O'er The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave? That Is What We Must All Ask.

Form And Substance Are Opposite Ends Of The Same Coin.

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.

During My First Press Conference As President, In Answer To A Direct Question, I Pointed Out That, As Good Marxist-leninists, The Soviet Leaders Have Openly And Publicly Declared That The Only Morality They Recognize Is That Which Will Further Their Cause, Which Is World Revolution.

Since I Came To The White House, I Got Two Hearing Aids, A Colon Operation, Skin Cancer, A Prostate Operation, And I Was Shot. The Damn Thing Is, I've Never Felt Better In My Life.

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.

A Nation That Cannot Control Its Borders Is Not A Nation.

By 1980, We Knew It Was Time To Renew Our Faith, To Strive With All Our Strength Toward The Ultimate In Individual Freedom Consistent With An Orderly Society. We Believed Then And Now There Are No Limits To Growth And Human Progress When Men And Women Are Free To Follow Their Dreams.

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

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.

If Not Us, Who? And If Not Now, When?

[write To Your Congressional Representative Against The Health Care Reform Proposal Or] We Will Awake To Find That We Have Socialism.

If The Family Goes, So Goes Our Civilization.

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.

America's Best Days Are Yet To Come.

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.

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

Intelligence Services

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)

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.

Freedom Is The Right To Question And Change The Established Way Of Doing Things. It Is The Continuing Revolution Of The Marketplace. It Is The Understanding That Allows Us To Recognize Shortcomings And Seek Solutions. It Is The Right To Put Forth An Idea, Scoffed At By The Experts, And Watch It Catch Fire Among The People. It Is The Right To Follow Your Dream, Or Stick To Your Conscience Even If You're The Only One In A Sea Of Doubters.

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.

Great Nations Which Fail To Meet Their Responsibilities Are Consigned To The Dustbin Of History. We Grew From That Small, Weak Republic Which Had As Its Assets Spirit, Optimism, Faith In God And An Unshakeable Belief That Free Men And Women Could Govern Themselves Wisely. We Became The Leader Of The Free World, An Example For All Those Who Cherish Freedom.

Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look.

Permanent Brain Damage Is One Of The Inevitable Results Of The Use Of Marijuana.

We Can Have Peace And Brotherly Love By Accepting Our Responsibility To Preserve Freedom.

Don't Let Anyone Tell You That America's Best Days Are Behind Her - That The American Spirit Has Been Vanquished. We've Seen It Triumph Too Often In Our Lives To Stop Believing In It 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.

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.

Deep Religious Beliefs Stemming From The Old And New Testaments Of The Bible Inspired Many Of The Early Settlers Of Our Country, Providing Them With The Strength, Character, Convictions, And Faith Necessary To Withstand Great Hardship And Danger In This New And Rugged Land. These Shared Beliefs Helped Forge A Sense Of Common Purpose Among The Widely Dispersed Colonies - A Sense Of Community Which Laid The Foundation For The Spirit Of Nationhood That Was To Develop In Later Decades.

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.

Republicans Believe Every Day Is The Fourth Of July, But The Democrats Believe Every Day Is April 15.

The Man Who Puts Into The Marriage Only Half Of What He Owns Will Get That Out.

There Are No Constraints On The Human Mind, No Walls Around The Human Spirit, No Barriers To Our Progress Except Those We Ourselves Erect.

When A Business Or An Individual Spends More Than It Makes, It Goes Bankrupt. When Government Does It, It Sends You The Bill. And When Government Does It For 40 Years, The Bill Comes In Two Ways: Higher Taxes And Inflation. Make No Mistake About It, Inflation Is A Tax And Not By Accident.

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.

A Political Party Cannot Be All Things To All People. It Must Represent Certain Fundamental Beliefs Which Must Not Be Compromised To Political Expediency, Or Simply To Swell Its Numbers.

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?

If History Teaches Us Anything, It Teaches That Simple-minded Appeasement Or Wishful Thinking About Our Adversaries Is Folly.

The American People Cannot Close Their Eyes To Abuses Of Human Rights And Injustice, Whether They Occur Among Friend Or Adversary Or Even On Our Own Shores.

We Developed At The Local School District Level Probably The Best Public School System In The World. Or It Was Until The Federal Government Added Federal Interference To Federal Financial Aid And Eroded Educational Quality In The Process.

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

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

Politics Is Just Like Show Business. You Have A Hell Of An Opening, Coast For A While, And Then Have A Hell Of A Close.

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.

[a Woman Waiting For Him In The Kremlin Asked Gobachev] "was Communism Invented By A Politician Or A Scientist?" [he Replied] "well, A Politician." She Said, "that Explains It. The Scientist Would Have Tried It On Mice First."

Cannot Swords Be Turned To Plowshares? Can We And All Nations Not Live In Peace? In Our Obsession With Antagonisms Of The Moment, We Often Forget How Much Unites All The Members Of Humanity. 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. And Yet, I Ask You, Is Not An Alien Force Already Among Us? What Could Be More Alien To The Universal Aspirations Of Our Peoples Than War And The Threat Of War?

We Still Have Too Much Air And Water Pollution And We Still Need To Work To Reduce It. But We Also Need To Put The Problem Of Pollution Into A Historical As Well As Scientific Perspective.

I Notice That All Of The People Who Support Abortion Are Already Born.

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.

Yet Optimism Is In Order, Because Day By Day Democracy Is Proving Itself To Be A Not-at-all-fragile Flower. From Stettin On The Baltic To Varna On The Black Sea, The Regimes Planted By Totalitarianism Have Had More Than 30 Years To Establish Their Legitimacy. But None - Not One Regime - Has Yet Been Able To Risk Free Elections. Regimes Planted By Bayonets Do Not Take Root.

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.

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

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.'

We're Resolved Tonight That Young Americans Will Always See Those Potomac Lights, That They Will Always Find Here A City Of Hope In A Country That's Free So That When Other Generations Look Back At This Conservative Era In American Politics And Our Time In Power, They'll Say Of Us That We Did Hold True To That Dream Of Joseph Winthrop And Joseph Warren, That We Did Keep Faith With Our God, That We Did Act Worthy Of Ourselves, That We Did Protect And Pass On Lovingly That Shining City On A Hill.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

You On The Cutting Edge Of Technology Have Already Made Yesterday's Impossibilities The Commonplace Realities Of Today.

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

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.

Those Who Have Known Freedom And Then Lost It, Have Never Known It Again

I've Often Wondered, What If All Of Us In The World Discovered That We Were Threatened By An Outer -- A Power From Outer Space, From Another Planet. Wouldn't We All Of A Sudden Find That We Didn't Have Any Differences Between Us At All, We Were All Human Beings, Citizens Of The World, And Wouldn't We Come Together To Fight That Particular Threat?

To Do Whatever Needs To Be Done To Preserve This Last And Greatest Bastion Of Freedom.

Elena, My Four Year Old, Says To Me In All Seriousness; "mommy, You Need To Buy Another Baby".

Work And Family Are At The Center Of Our Lives, The Foundation Of Our Dignity As A Free People.

The Federal Reserve Is Answerable To No One.

Federal Reserve

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.

Bureaucracy Is Adept At Protecting Its Nest.

Don't Be Afraid To See What You See.

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?

Liberals Are People Who Think That Being Tough On Crime Means Longer Suspended Sentences.

Jesse Helms Wants Me To Move To The Right, Lowell Weiker Wants Me To Move To The Left, And Teddy Kennedy Wants Me To Move Back To California.

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.

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.

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

If The Federal Government Had Been Around When The Creator Was Putting His Hand To This State, Indiana Wouldn't Be Here. It'd Still Be Waiting For An Environmental Impact Statement.

Die-hard Conservatives Thought That If I Couldn't Get Everything I Asked For, I Should Jump Off The Cliff With The Flag Flying-go Down In Flames. No, If I Can Get 70 Or 80 Percent Of What It Is I'm Trying To Get ... I'll Take That And Then Continue To Try To Get The Rest In The Future.

The Current Tax Code Is A Daily Mugging.

The Person Who Agrees With You 80 Percent Of The Time Is A Friend And An Ally - Not A 20 Percent Traitor.

Outside Of Its Legitimate Function, Government Does Nothing As Well Or Economically As The Private Sector.

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

The Purpose Of America Is To Unleash The Full Talent And Genius Of Every Individual.

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

Freedom Is Indivisible - There Is No "s" On The End Of It. You Can Erode Freedom, Diminish It, But You Cannot Divide It And Choose To Keep "some Freedoms" While Giving Up Others.

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

I Was Going To Have An Opening Statement, But I Decided That What I Was Going To Say I Wanted To Get A Lot Of Attention, So I'm Going To Wait And Leak It.

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

I Would Have Voted Against The Civil Rights Act Of 1964.

If You've Seen One Redwood, You've Seen Them All.

We Need True Tax Reform That Will At Least Make A Start Toward Restoring For Our Children The American Dream That Wealth Is Denied To No One, That Each Individual Has The Right To Fly As High As His Strength And Ability Will Take Him.

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

Government Is Like A Baby. An Alimentary Canal With A Big Appetite At One End And No Sense Of Responsibility At The Other.

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.

In Opening Our Hearts, We Hope This Might Promote Greater Awareness Of This Condition. Perhaps It Will Encourage A Clearer Understanding Of The Individuals And Families Who Are Affected By It.

Now, I Happen To Be An Optimist.

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.

You And I Have The Courage To Say To Our Enemies, 'there Is A Price We Will Not Pay.' There Is A Point Beyond Which They Must Not Advance. This Is The Meaning Of The Phrase 'peace Through Strength.'

Our Status As A Free Society And World Power Is Not Based On Brute Strength. When We've Taken Up Arms, It Has Been For The Defense Of Freedom For Ourselves And For Other Peaceful Nations Who Needed Our Help. But Now, Faced With The Development Of Weapons With Immense Destructive Power, We've No Choice But To Maintain Ready Defense Forces That Are Second To None. Yes, The Cost Is High, But The Price Of Neglect Would Be Infinitely Higher.

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William H. Macy

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