Steve Wahlquist > Steve's Quotes

“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.”
― Ronald Reagan

“As government expands, liberty contracts.”
― Ronald Reagan

“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

“Sometimes when I'm faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”
― 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

“I hope we once again have 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

“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

“Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them.”
― Ronald Reagan

“You can’t tax business. Business doesn’t pay taxes. It collects taxes.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Remember that every government service, every offer of government - financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom... In the days to come, whenever a voice is raised telling you to let the government do it, analyze very carefully to see whether the suggested service is worth the personal freedom which you must forgo in return for such service.”
― Ronald Reagan

“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.”
― Ronald Reagan

“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order --or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.”
― Ronald Reagan

“While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Facts are stupid things.”
― Ronald Reagan

“By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”
― Socrates

“Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.”
― Socrates

“Where utopianism is advanced through gradualism rather than revolution, albeit steady and persistent as in democratic societies, it can deceive and disarm an unsuspecting population, which is largely content and passive. It is sold as reforming and improving the existing society's imperfections and weaknesses without imperiling its basic nature. Under these conditions, it is mostly ignored, dismissed, or tolerated by much of the citizenry and celebrated by some. Transformation is deemed innocuous, well-intentioned, and perhaps constructive but not a dangerous trespass on fundamental liberties.”
― Mark R. Levin, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America