Ronald Reagan Government Quotes & Sayings

When you start talking about government as 'we' instead of 'they,' you have been in office too long. — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

Our problems are both acute and chronic, yet all we hear from those in positions of leadership are the same tired proposals for more government tinkering, more meddling and more control
all of which led us to this state in the first place ... We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable, and then the courage to bring our government back under control and make it acceptable to the people. — Ronald Reagan

I went to my first national convention in 1976, when my family supported [Ronald] Reagan over [Gerald] Ford, so we've always been Republicans, but we've always wanted the Republican Party to be the party of fiscally conservative, limited-government types. And I think, sometimes, we haven't done that as well. — Rand Paul

Government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us. — Ronald Reagan

Simple fairness dictates that government must not raise taxes on families struggling to pay their bills. — Ronald Reagan

If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question. — Ronald Reagan

I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers ... Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them for ourselves. — Ronald Reagan

All of us should remember that the federal government is not some mysterious institution comprised of buildings, files and paper. The people are the government. What we create we ought to be able to control. — Ronald Reagan

Do Americans want the government to micromanage every aspect of our lives? President Ronald Reagan certainly didn't. — Kimberly Guilfoyle

I was alarmed at my doctor's report: He said I was sound as a dollar. — Ronald Reagan

I'll be like Scarlett O'Hara-I'll think about it tomorrow. — Ronald Reagan

Doing for people what they can, and ought to do for themselves, is a dangerous experiment," the great labor leader Samuel Gompers said. "In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends on their own initiative." The classic "liberal" believed individuals should be masters of their own destiny and the least government is the best government; these are precepts of freedom and self-reliance that are at the root of the American way and the American spirit. — Ronald Reagan

When those who are governed do too little, those who govern can - and often will - do too much. — Ronald Reagan

No matter how big and powerful government gets, and the many services it provides, it can never take the place of volunteers. — Ronald Reagan

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 — Ronald Reagan

The people's instincts are still right. You see them come to the rescue of someone-a child who falls down a well-hundreds of people rush to help, and labor and equipment are volunteered without any thought of who's going to pay for it. This is a basic feeling in Americans. They don't stand back in such a circumstance and ask what the government's going to do about it. — Ronald Reagan

I thought the function of the government was to promote the general welfare, not to provide it. — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

We have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? — Ronald Reagan

Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, conservatives have succeeded by adhering to a platform that rests firmly on three legs: smaller government, faith and family, and a strong national defense. These three legs do not merely represent a political coalition; they are three necessary components of a strong and secure America. — Frank Gaffney

The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program. — Ronald Reagan

Government is not the answer to the problem - it IS the problem. — Ronald Reagan

Let me speak plainly: The United States of America is and must remain a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. Our very unity has been strengthened by this pluralism. That's how we began; this is how we must always be. The ideals of our country leave no room whatsoever for intolerance, anti-Semitism, or bigotry of any kind
none. The unique thing about America is a wall in our Constitution separating church and state. It guarantees there will never be a state religion in this land, but at the same time it makes sure that every single American is free to choose and practice his or her religious beliefs or to choose no religion at all. Their rights shall not be questioned or violated by the state.
Remarks at the International Convention of B'nai B'rith, 6 September 1984 — Ronald Reagan

As government expands, liberty contracts. — Ronald Reagan

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars: It is better to be here [in Europe] ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

Free enterprise is a rough and competitive game. It is a hell of a lot better than a government monopoly. — Ronald Reagan

Our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring democracy the tolerance it requires to survive — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

This is not to say that the government should confiscate from the "haves" and bestow upon the "have-nots", beyond the requirements of a compassionate welfare program to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Far from it. But it is to say that our duty is to foster a strong, vibrant wealth-producing economy which operates in such a way that new additions to wealth accrue to those who presently have little or no ownership stake in their country. — Ronald Reagan

We are going to put an end to the notion that the American taxpayer exists to fund the Federal Government. — Ronald Reagan

Throughout my life, I guess there's been one thing that's troubled me more than any other: the abuse of people and the theft of their democratic rights, whether by a totalitarian government, an employer, or anyone else. I probably got it from my father; Jack never bristled more than when he thought working people were being exploited. — 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

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much. — Ronald Reagan

I believe Moses was 80 when God first commissioned him for public service. — Ronald Reagan

Now I realize it's fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible. That we're told we'll violate the constitutional separation of church and state established by the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values from government tyranny. — Ronald Reagan

My basic rule is that I want people who don't want a job in government. — Ronald Reagan

I believe this nation hungers for a spiritual revival; hungers to once again see honor placed above political expediency; to see government once again the protector of our liberties, not the distributor of gifts and privilege. Government should uphold and not undermine those institutions which are custodians of the very values upon which civilization is founded-religion, education and, above all, family. Government cannot be clergyman, teacher and patriot. It government is our servant, beholden to us. — Ronald Reagan

Free enterprise has done more to reduce poverty than all the government programs dreamed up by Democrats. — Ronald Reagan

Government is not the solution, but rather the cause of our problems. — Ronald Reagan

Let me make our goal ... very clear: jobs, jobs, jobs, and more jobs ... Our policy has been and will continue to be: What is good for the American workers is good for America. — Ronald Reagan

It's time for a 21st-century retirement age. If 40 is the new 20 and 50 is the new 30, why shouldn't 70 be the new 65? The last time Washington politicians tinkered ever so gingerly with the government-sanctioned retirement age, Ronald Reagan was in office and Generation X-ers were all in diapers. — Michelle Malkin

Yes, deficits are a problem. I've been saying so for more than a quarter of a century now. But the problem is not the size of the deficit, it's the size of government's claim on our economy. — Ronald Reagan

In some dim beginning, man created the institution of government as a convenience for himself. And, ever since that time, government has been doing its best to become an inconvenience. — Ronald Reagan

Professional politicians like to talk about the value of experience in government. Nuts! The only experience you gain in politics is how to be political. — Ronald Reagan

The federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government. — Ronald Reagan

Government Steals from the needy and gives to the greedy — Ronald Reagan

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem. It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so. — Ronald Reagan

Respect for human rights is not social work; it is not merely an act of compassion. It is the first obligation of government and the source of its legitimacy. — Ronald Reagan

When the Commander-in-Chief of a nation finds it necessary to order employees of the government or agencies of the government to do things that would technically break the law, he has to be able to declare it legal for them to do that. — Ronald Reagan

Governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. — Ronald Reagan

In 1992, the federal Government actually issued more work authorizations to immigrants and temporary foreign workers than the net number of new jobs created by our economy. Something is fundamentally wrong when we have millions of American citizens and legal residents begging for jobs, and yet we are admitting thousands and thousands of immigrants a year with virtually no consideration to our employment needs or their employment skills. — Ronald Reagan

Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment. — Ronald Reagan

Some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won. — Ronald Reagan

When Ronald Reagan was elected president for his first term in 1980, he received strong support from the so-called Sagebrush Rebels. The Rebels wanted lands owned by the federal government to be transferred to state governments. — Steve Hanke

Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. — Ronald Reagan

Families cannot prosper and keep America strong if government becomes a Goliath that preys upon their wealth, usurps their rights, and crushes their spirit. — Ronald Reagan

When, in his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan famously said government is the problem, not the solution, he established the Republican mantra that has not changed in all the years since. It was a clever bit of rhetoric, but it has turned too many Republicans into economic simpletons. — David Horsey

The economic welfare of all our people must ultimately stem not from government programs, but from the wealth created by a vigorous private sector. — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

We were poor when I was young but the difference was that the government didn't come around telling you you were poor. — Ronald Reagan

There were so many candidates on the platform that there were not enough promises to go around. — Ronald Reagan

We are for aiding our allies by sharing some of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We are helping 107 We spent $146 billion. With that money, we bought a 2-million-dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity. — Ronald Reagan

Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted, it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy. — Ronald Reagan

When others spoke of the fear of war, you spoke of the need for warriors and peace through strength. When others bewailed the failure of big government to provide for the collective good, you spoke of self-reliance, of personal responsibility, of individual pride and integrity. When others preached compromise - when others demanded compromise, you, Ronald Reagan, preached conviction. — Margaret Thatcher

Democracy is not a fragile flower; still it needs cultivating. — Ronald Reagan

Our system freed the individual genius of man. Released him to fly as high & as far as his own talent & energy would take him. We allocate resources not by government. decision but by the millions of decisions customers make when they go into the market. place to buy. If something seems too high-priced we buy something else. Thus resources are steered toward those things the people want most at the price they are willing to pay. It may not be a perfect system but it's better than any other that's ever been tried. — Ronald Reagan

The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. — Ronald Reagan

The best view of big government is in the rearview mirror as we leave it behind. — Ronald Reagan

Man is not free unless government is limited. — Ronald Reagan

Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite. — Ronald Reagan

I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority. — Ronald Reagan

Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. — Ronald Reagan

The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a Government Program — Ronald Reagan

All of us can see what happens once you establish the precedent that the government can determine a man's working place and his working methods, determine his employment. From here it's a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay ... He will wait for the government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do. — Ronald Reagan

I know I'm not in government anymore. In fact I'm out of work. — Ronald Reagan

I often quote Ronald Reagan, who is pretty close to my favorite President ever, I will have to say that, but one of my favorite remarks he ever made was that when you look at Federal programs, there is nothing so close to eternal life on Earth as a Federal Government program. — Marsha Blackburn

Fellow Americans, our duty is before us tonight. Let us go forward, determined to serve selflessly a vision of man with God, government for people, and humanity at peace. For it is now our task to tend and preserve, through the darkest and coldest nights, that "sacred fire of liberty" that President Washington spoke of two centuries ago, a fire that tonight remains a beacon to all oppressed of the world, shining forth from this kindly, pleasant, greening land we call America. — Ronald Reagan

The central con of the political coalition assembled by Ronald Reagan and maintained by his successors was that government was a common enemy. — Timothy Noah

People were tired of wasteful government programs and welfare chiselers; and they were angry about the constant spiral of taxes and government regulations, arrogant bureaucrats, and public officials who thought all of mankind's problems could be solved by throwing the taxpayers' dollars at them. — Ronald Reagan

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 — Ronald Reagan

No matter what your background, no matter how low your station in life, there must be no limit on your ability to reach for the stars, to go as far as your God-given talents will take you. Trust the people; believe every human being is capable of greatness, capable of self-government ... only when people are free to worship, create, and build, only when they are given a personal stake in deciding their destiny and benefiting from their own risks, only then do societies become dynamic, prosperous, progressive, and free. — Ronald Reagan

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets. — Ronald Reagan

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals - if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. — Ronald Reagan

AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II, I was a New Dealer to the core. I thought government could solve all our postwar problems just as it had ended the Depression and won the war. I didn't trust big business. I thought government, not private companies, should own our big public utilities; if there wasn't enough housing to shelter the American people, I thought government should build it; if we needed better medical care, the answer was socialized medicine. — Ronald Reagan

Every dollar the federal government does not take from us, every decision it does not make for us, will make our economy stronger, our lives more abundant, our future more free. — Ronald Reagan

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? — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. — Ronald Reagan

The government is currently experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and we musn't feed the habit by injecting more tax dollars into it. — Ronald Reagan

I think the presidency is an institution over which you have temporary custody. — Ronald Reagan

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. — Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan is the closest thing [to the strong conservative] we have.He said that we shouldn't spend money we don't have, and he said that the government shouldn't get involved in things that it's not very good at doing. — Michael Enzi

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. — Ronald Reagan

Either you will control your government, or government will control you. — Ronald Reagan

Jefferson repeatedly said that the best government was the smallest government, that governments are not the masters of the people, but the servants of the people governed. — Ronald Reagan

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! — Ronald Reagan

One of the greatest of liberals, Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic Party, once remarked: A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. — Ronald Reagan