Ronald Reagan

Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.

I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is made ambassador to someplace like Afghanistan, where there’s no electricity, so he couldn’t get CNN on the air.

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

I’ve often wondered how some people can go through life without ever reading the comics.

The taxpayer—that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.

The Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted, because everyone would join the opposition party.

Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

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, or 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.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not to run their lives.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is to blame rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the Marines don't have that problem.

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.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to do, then we can go ahead and do it.

We must never forget that the only real guarantee of lasting peace is the strength and readiness of our defenses.