"I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.”

“I've heard that hard work never killed anyone, but I say why take the chance?”

“Government is like a baby: an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”

“The federal government must and shall quit this business of relief. Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber.”

“But our strategy for peace with freedom must also be based on strength—economic strength and military strength.”

“Here's my strategy on the Cold War: we win, they lose.”

“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.”

“Tax increases don’t eliminate deficits they increase govt. spending.”

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing” 

“These young Americans sent a message to terrorists everywhere. . . . You can run but you can't hide.”

“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

“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.”

“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.”

“My parents constantly drummed into me the importance of judging people as individuals. There was no more grievous sin at our household than a racial slur or other evidence of religious or racial intolerance. A lot of it, I think, was because my dad had learned what discrimination was like firsthand. He’d grown up in an era when some stores still had signs at their door saying, NO DOGS OR IRISHMEN ALLOWED. When my brother and I were growing up, there were still ugly tumors of racial bigotry in much of America, including the corner of Illinois where we lived. At our one local movie theater, blacks and whites had to sit apart—the blacks in the balcony. My mother and father urged my brother and me to bring home our black playmates, to consider them equals, and to respect the religious views of our friends, whatever they were. My brother’s best friend was black, and when they went to the movies, Neil sat with him in the balcony. My mother always taught us: “Treat thy neighbor as you would want your neighbor to treat you,” and “Judge everyone by how they act, not what they are.” Once my father checked into a hotel during a shoe-selling trip and a clerk told him: “You’ll like it here, Mr. Reagan, we don’t permit a Jew in the place.” My father, who told us the story later, said he looked at the clerk angrily and picked up his suitcase and left. “I’m a Catholic,” he said. “If it’s come to the point where you won’t take Jews, then some day you won’t take me either.” Because it was the only hotel in town, he spent the night in his car during a winter blizzard and I think it may have led to his first heart attack.”