The quotations of

Ronald Reagan

40th President of the United States

1911–2004

77 quotes, most often on Government, Freedom and Economics. Part of the U.S. Presidents collection.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.
Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address (1981)
- Government
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
- Business
- Government
We’ve 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. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?
Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address (1981)
- Government
Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets.
Bush-Reagan Debate 1980 on Taxes at League of Women Voters. (24 April 1980) · video footage
- Government
As government expands, liberty contracts.
Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address (1989)
- Government
- Liberty
Outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.
- Government
A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.
- Government
I think the best possible social program is a job.
- Government
The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution.
- Government
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Joke during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California, as quoted by Leo E. Litwak in The New York Times Magazine (14 November 1965), p. 174.
- Government
Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself.
- Government
Are you entitled to the fruits of your labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?
- Government
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.
- Government
Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini’s success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say “But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.”
Time (17 May 1976)
- Economics
- Government
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
News Conference (12 August 1986)
- Government

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