Biography of U.S. President Ronald Reagan Part 13 Quotes and Quotations

About the United States President Ronald Reagan, a collections of quotes and quotations from and about Reagan.

PROFILES OF THE PRESIDENTS

40th President

RONALD WILSON REAGAN

QUOTES FROM REAGAN

"I discovered that night that an audience has a feel to it and, in the parlance of the theater, that audience and I were together. When I came to actually presenting the motion, there was no need for parliamentary procedures. They came to their feet with a roar--even the faculty members present voted by acclamation. It was heady wine. Hell, with two more lines I could have had them riding through every Middlesex village and farm--without horses yet."--On the 1928 student strike he led at Eureka College

"I'd like to harness their youthful energy with a strap."--Concerning student demonstrations in California, 1966

"The entire graduated income tax structure was created by Karl Marx. It has no justification in getting government revenue."--During the 1966 gubernatorial campaign in California

"We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it, and still be home by Christmas."--1966

"Welfare recipients are a faceless mass waiting for a handout."--1966

"The time has come to stop being our brother's keeper."--Concerning welfare budget cuts in California, 1967

"A tree's a tree. How many do you need to look at?"--Concerning the expansion of California's Redwood National Forest, 1967

"Let me point out that my administration makes no bones about being business-oriented."--As California governor, 1967

"If it's a bloodbath they want, let's get it over with."--Concerning student demonstrations, 1970

"It's just too bad we can't have an epidemic of botulism."--In response to the Hearst family's free food giveaway to the poor as partial ransom for their daughter Patricia, Kidnapped by the SLA terrorist group, 1974

"We have a different regard for human life than those monsters do."--On the subject of Communists, 1980

"I'm not smart enough to lie."--Response to an inquiry about his qualifications for the presidency, 1980

QUOTES ABOUT HIM

"No, no, no, no. You've got it all wrong. Jimmy Stewart for governor, Ronald Reagan for best friend."--Attributed to Jack Warner when he first learned that Reagan was running for public office, 1966

"Ronald Reagan managed to change his image almost completely between the time he announced for the office of governor and the time he came into the homestretch of the election, a period of some two or three months... he came into the election carrying the image of Barry Goldwater. He emerged at the end of the campaign bearing the image of Nelson Rockefeller."--Harry Ashmore, chairman of the Advisory Committee of the California Democratic party, 1967

"For years the American Right had hungered for a national spokesman with political sex appeal. . . . [Reagan] looked sophisticated and urbane, even though his message was corny and parochial."--Joseph Lewis, author of What Makes Reagan Run, 1968

"He's simplistic in a positive sense. He sees situations and problems very clearly. The measurements he uses are black and white, even if the problems aren't."--Charles Z. Wick, California investor

"Ron is no genius. He's not a helluva lot smarter than I am, but he has enormously good common sense and he uses it. That's what appeals to the man in the street."--Justin Dart, chairman and chief executive of Dart Industries, Inc., 1980

"I'm dissatisfied with the candidates of the major parties. You have [Carter]. . . and on the other hand you have a man who is difficult to understand because he has his feet in his mouth most of the time."--Stanley Marcus, former chairman of the board of Neiman-Marcus, 1980

"Ronnie knows how to relax. He doesn't take his problems home."--Alfred Bloomingdale, 1980

"External experience seems filtered into his rhetorical shell like Tang to an astronaut--powdered, sanitary, and lifeless."--Robert Scheer, journalist, 1980

"He doesn't make snap decisions, but he doesn't tend to overthink, either."--Nancy Reagan, 1980

"Nancy and Dad have a very close relationship. You'd think they just got married yesterday. It's hard to break that barrier sometimes--not that that's bad. It's great for them because it's their lives."--Michael Reagan, 1980

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