Quotable Reagan

I frequently find myself quoting Reagan's speeches and radio broadcasts, because much of what he said is still relevant.

"They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer — not an easy answer — but simple."
(A Time For Choosing)

I am going to attempt to create on this page, a collection of his best/most relevant lines and ideally make them such that they can be placed into a social media post without losing their value.

Quote	Source	Subject	Click to Post
We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.	A Time For Choosing	Freedom	Post to Twitter
The very purpose of the Bill of Rights was to forever put them (our god-given unalienable rights) beyond reach of majority rule.	The Myth of the Great Society	Freedom	Post to Twitter
Thomas Jefferson said, "If we let Washington tell us when to sow and when to reap, the nation shall soon want for bread."	Encroaching Control	Regulation	Post to Twitter
But wouldn't it make a lot more sense to keep some of that money here in the local community to begin with instead of than routing it through that Puzzle Palace on the Potomac where its returned to us, minus a sizable carrying charge?	Encroaching Control	Bureaucracy	Post to Twitter
In those other constitutions, those guarantees are privileges granted to the people by the government. In ours they are declared as rights, ours by the grace of God. We're born with them and no government can take them away without our consent.	Radio Commentary	Freedom	Post to Twitter
[I]f you and I in America planted mines on our borders, ringed the country with barbed wire and machine gun toting guards to keep anyone from leaving the country, we'd hardly describe that as "liberating" the people.	Radio Commentary	Freedom	Post to Twitter
Communism is neither an economic or a political system. It's a form of insanity, a temporary aberration which will one day disappear from the earth because it is contrary to human nature.	Radio Commentary	Communism	Post to Twitter
People are ecology too, and most of us are looking for answers that will preserve nature to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the need to have places where we can work and live.	Radio Commentary	Environment	Post to Twitter
When government pulls its hand out and let's the law of supply and demand work, that law works naturally. If prices go up, demand slacks off, prices slide down, demand goes up. The process is self-regulating.	Radio Commentary	Regulation	Post to Twitter
If the dead hand of government can be lifted or ignored, groups of citizens can and will come together to deal effectively with problems facing them. The key is in devising a system in which power and responsibility are dispersed at the grassroots, instead of being concentrated in a hierarchy of bureaucracies and institutions.	Radio Commentary	Bureaucracy	Post to Twitter
[G]uns don't make criminals, it's criminals who make use of guns. They're the ones who should be punished not the law-abiding citizen who seeks only to protect himself.	Radio Commentary	Gun Control	Post to Twitter
Take away the arms of the citizen and where is his defense against not only criminals but also against the possible despotism of his government. In police states, they take away the citizens arms first.	Radio Commentary	Gun Control	Post to Twitter
The campaign goes on to bring health care in America out of the free market system and into the protective custody of government. Those who brought us the Postal Service and Amtrak are anxious to provide medical service of the same high caliber.	Radio Commentary	Socialized Medicine	Post to Twitter
Socialists ignore the side of man that is of the spirit. They can provide shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you're ill. All the things that are guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we also dream.	Radio Commentary	Socialism	Post to Twitter
We have more oil in the oil shale of the mountain states than there is in the entire Middle East. The problem is not a lack of energy, it is government regulations which deter rather than promote the extraction of it. ... if we relax government controls on our natural gas, nuclear plants, oil shale and offshore drilling, we won't have to talk about invading the Middle East. Instead we could surpass the Middle East as the world's chief exporter of energy.	Radio Commentary	Energy
40,000 letters in Congress is considered evidence of a trend in public thinking. That's why the Communist Party boasts they can put 50,000 letters in Washington in any 72-hour period on any issue they choose.	Encroaching Control	Communication	Post to Twitter
Now some people tell us the answer to his problem is to soak those of a higher income even more. But how much leeway is left? If the government, tomorrow, started confiscating all income above $6000, all income, the increased revenue wouldn't pay the interest on the national debt.	Encroaching Control	Taxes	Post to Twitter
Francis Keppel, United States Director of Education blurted out, "You don't understand, under the plan you proposed, we couldn't achieve our social objectives." Social objectives. ... Education is the bulwark of freedom but you remove it too far from the community and the parents control and education becomes the tool of tyranny.	The Myth of the Great Society	Education
Freedom... freedom is very fragile. We've only known a few moments of it in all man's history and most of those moments have taken place here, ... But freedom is also indivisible. It isn't spelled with an S. You can't elect to be partly free and partly slave. You're free or you're not free.	The Myth of the Great Society	Freedom
Robert Weaver ... has said in the beginning, he has made this statement public, the government gave the use of the land to the people to speed its development. Now I didn't remember history that way, I thought we were here and on the land and we created the government.	The Myth of the Great Society		Post to Twitter
Does men exist only by permission of and for the sake of the state, a group marching toward eternity in a super ant heap or does he control his own destiny? This is a question that must be answered by all of us regardless of party.	The Myth of the Great Society		Post to Twitter
So here comes 'Joe Muscles,' 6 foot 4—225 pounds who didn't quite make it on the varsity. He still wants to play basketball and so he plays—on what used to be the all girls team.	Radio Commentary	Gender	Post to Twitter
It all boils down to the fact that economic decisions made by a government tend to be made for political not economic reasons.	Radio Commentary	Economics	Post to Twitter