Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly influential voice of modern conservatism. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination and defeated the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter.
At 69 years, 349 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Reagan was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 2017, when Donald Trump was inaugurated at age 70 years, 220 days. Reagan was re-elected in 1984, winning 58.8% of the national popular vote and losing only D.C. and his opponent Walter Mondale’s home state of Minnesota, one of the most lopsided victories in modern American history.
Immediately on taking office as president, Reagan began implementing sweeping new political and economic initiatives that were highly popular among conservatives but denounced by liberals. Over his two terms, the economy saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4% and an average real GDP annual growth of 3.6%. In his first term, he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, and fought public sector labor unions.
When Reagan left office in January 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton, as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. His tenure constituted a realignment toward conservative policies in the United States, and he is an icon among conservatives. Evaluations of his presidency among historians and the general public place him among the upper tier of American presidents.
Some of the best quotes from Ronald Reagan are listed below.
- “A people free to choose will always choose peace.” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Coercion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Don’t try to make your dreams a reality, they’re only filled with things that don’t make sense and trolls. Things are better in reality.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.” – Ronald Reagan
- “I believe now, as I always have, that America’s strength is in ‘We the People.’” – Ronald Reagan
- “I believe the best social program is a job – Ronald Reagan
- “I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines.” – Ronald Reagan
- “I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.” – Ronald Reagan
- “I hope we have once again 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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “I used to say that politics was the second-oldest profession. I have come to know that it bears a gross similarity to the first.” – Ronald Reagan
- “If not us, who? And if not now, when?” – Ronald Reagan
- “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” – Ronald Reagan
- “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under.” – Ronald Reagan
- “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.” – Ronald Reagan
- “In raising and instructing our children, in providing personal and compassionate care for the elderly, in maintaining the spiritual strength of religious commitment among our people– in these and other ways, America’s families make immeasurable contributions to America’s well-being. Today, more than ever, it is essential that these contributions not be taken for granted and that each of us remember that the strength of our families is vital to the strength of our nation.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Man is not free unless government is limited.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Many a man has failed because he had his wishbone where his backbone should have been.” – Ronald Reagan
- “My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose. Somehow we win out.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Never let the things you can’t do stop you from doing what you can.” – Ronald Reagan
- “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project.” – Ronald Reagan
- “One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.” – Ronald Reagan
- “The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.” – Ronald Reagan
- “The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave.” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally – not a 20 percent traitor.” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “The ultimate determinate in the struggle now going on for 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 and the ideas to which we are dedicated.” – Ronald Reagan
- “There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” – Ronald Reagan
- “There are no easy answers’ but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” – Ronald Reagan
- “There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.” – Ronald Reagan
- “There is absolutely no circumstance whatever under which I would accept that spot.” – Ronald Reagan
- “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” – Ronald Reagan
- “They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer – not an easy answer – but simple.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.’ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Trust, but verify.” – Ronald Reagan
- “We are never defeated unless we give up on God.” – Ronald Reagan
- “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan
- “We must be cautious in claiming God is on our side. I think the real question we must answer is, are we on His side?” – Ronald Reagan
- “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.” – Ronald Reagan
- “We the people tell the government what to do. It doesn’t tell us.” – Ronald Reagan
- “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.” – Ronald Reagan
- “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.” – Ronald Reagan
- “When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.” – Ronald Reagan
- “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness” – Ronald Reagan
