Also visit: Reagan & Rutherford

I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.

Farewell Address to the Nation, January 11, 1989


 

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth,’ to ‘touch the face of God.’

Address to the Nation, January 28, 1986


I told maybe some of you the other day in a talk that I know it’s hard, it’s hard when you’re up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here to drain the swamp.

Remarks at a White House reception for women appointees of the administration, February 10, 1982


 

FDR also expressed his belief in giving back to the states authorities which he said had been unjustly usurped by the federal government. And I figure if we give enough of them back, then I’m going to be able to go to the ranch more often.

Toast at a White House Dinner honoring the Nation’s Governors, February 23, 1982


They tell me I’m the most powerful man in the world. I don’t believe that. Over there in that White House someplace there is a fellow that puts a piece of paper on my desk every day that tells me what I’m going to be doing every 15 minutes. He’s the most powerful man in the world.

Referring to the Director of Presidential Scheduling, February 23, 1984

 

And, Billy [Graham], I’m going to have to tell them something that you told me, because with all this, too, there is a practical side of life. Reverend Graham was in the Soviet Union and invited by a bureaucrat of that government structure to lunch, and found himself faced with a lunch, as he described it, that was more magnificent and more of a gourmet type of thing than he had ever seen – caviar that wouldn’t stop and every other thing that you could eat. And he couldn’t resist saying to his host, ‘But how can you life this way, do this, when there are so many people out there that don’t have enough to eat, that are hungry?’ And that man said, ‘I worked hard for this.’ And, God bless him, Billy Graham said, ‘That’s what the capitalists say.’

Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, February 23, 1983

It seems that they were having some trouble with speeders in the Soviet Union, even though they don’t have any automobiles. So, an order was issued that everybody, no matter who it was, caught speeding got a ticket. And one day General Secretary Gorbachev was coming out of his country home. He’s late getting to the Kremlin. So, he told his driver to get in the backseat and he’d drive. And down the road went, past two motorcycle policemen. One of them took out after him. In just a few minutes, he was back with his buddy. And the buddy said, ‘Well, did you give him a ticket?’ And he said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘You didn’t? Why not? We’re supposed to give everyone a ticket.’ He said, ‘No, he was too important.’ ‘But,’ he said, ‘who was it?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I couldn’t recognize him. But his driver was Gorbachev.’

Remarks following a visit to the Reynolds Metals Company, Richmond, March 28, 1988


It’s no secret that I wear a hearing aid. Well, just the other day, all of a sudden, it went haywire. We discovered the KGB had put a listening device in my listening device.

Remarks at The White House Correspondents Association Annual Dinner, April 22, 1987


I don’t know all the national anthems of the world, but I do know this: The only anthem of those I do know that ends with a question is ours, and may it be ever thus. Does that banner still wave ‘o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?’ Yes, it does, and we’re going to see that it continues to wave over that kind of a country.

Remarks at the Republican Congressional ‘Salute to President Ronald Reagan’ Dinner, May 4, 1982


 

When Brezhnev first became President, he invited his elderly mother to come up and see his suite of offices in the Kremlin and then put her in his limousine and drove her to his fabulous apartment there in Moscow. And in both places, not a word. She looked; she said nothing. Then he put her in his helicopter and took her out to the country home outside Moscow in a forest. And again, not a word. Finally, he put her in his private jet and down the shores of the Black Sea to see that marble palace which is known as his beach home. And finally she spoke. She said, ‘Leonid, what is the communists find out?’

Remarks at Eureka College Alumni Association Dinner, Eureka, IL, May 9, 1982


Tip O’Neill once asked me how I keep myself looking so young for the cameras. I told him I have a good makeup team. It’s the same people who’ve been repairing the Statue of Liberty.

Remarks at the annual White House News Photographers’ Association Dinner, May 15, 1986


It’s our earnest prayer to serve America in peace. It’s our solemn commitment to defend her in a time of war.

Remarks at the US Coast Guard Academy Commencement Ceremony, New London, Connecticut, May 18, 1988


 

When was the last time you bought a car – or there are some other things there – even a good cheese or videocassette recorder and the label read, ‘Made in the USSR?’

Remarks to the annual convention of the National Association of Countries, Indianapolis, July 13, 1987

There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, June 12, 1987
 

More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country, to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of the community of shared values.

From the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address, Republican National Convention, Detroit, July 17, 1980


America needs leaders, not labels.

Remarks at the Herbert Hoover Library, West Branch, Iowa, August 8, 1992


In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about.

Address to the Republican National Convention, Houston, August 17, 1992
 

I am a collector of stories that I can establish are actually told by the people of the Soviet Union among themselves. And this one has to do with the fact that in the Soviet Union, if you want to buy an automobile, it is a 10-year wait. And you have to put the money down ten years before you get the car. So, there was a young fellow there that had finally made it, and he was going through all the bureaus and agencies that he had to go through, and signing all the papers, and finally got to the last agency where they put the stamp on it. And then he gave them his money, and they said, ‘Come back in ten years and get your car.’ And he said, ‘Morning or afternoon?’ And the man that had put the stamp on says, ‘Well, wait a minute,’ he says, ‘we’re talking about ten years from now. What difference does it make?’ He said, ‘The plumber is coming in the morning.’

Remarks at a Fundraising Reception for Senator Orrin Hatch, June 17, 1987


And may I conclude with a little Irish blessing – although, some suggest it’s a curse: May those who love us, love us. And those who don’t love us, may God turn their hearts. And if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping.

Remarks on Administration Goals to Senior Presidential Appointees, September 8, 1987


History’s no easy subject. Even in my day it wasn’t, and we had so much less of it to learn then.

Remarks to winners of the Bicentennial of the Constitution Essay Competition, September 10, 1987


I should warn you that things in this city aren’t often the way they seem. Where but in Washington would they call the department that’s in charge of everything outdoors, everything outside, the Department of the Interior.

Remarks at the Fundraising Dinner of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, September 14, 1983

I've always thought that the common sense and wisdom of government were summed up in a sign they used to have hanging on that gigantic Hoover Dam. It said, ‘Government property. Do not remove.’

Remarks at the annual meeting of the National Alliance of Business, September 14, 1987


 

I mean no irreverence when I mention that I once played a sheriff on TV who thought he could do the job without a gun. I was dead in the first 27 minutes of the show.

Remarks at the annual meeting of the International Association of Chiefs of the Police, New Orleans, September 28, 1981

Let us begin with candor, with words that rest on plain and simple facts. The differences between America and the Soviet Union are deep and abiding. The United States is a democratic nation. Here the people rule. We build no walls to keep them in, nor organize any system of police to keep them mute. We occupy no country. The only land abroad we occupy is the land beneath the graves where our heroes rest. What is called the West is a voluntary association of free nations, all of whom fiercely value their independence and their sovereignty. And as deeply as we cherish our beliefs, we do not seek to compel others to share them.

Address to the United Nations General Assembly, New York, October 24, 1985


Before I took up my current line of work, I got to know a thing or two about negotiating when I represented the Screen Actors Guild in contract talks with the studios. After the studios, Gorbachev was a snap.

Remarks to the National Chamber of Foundation, November 17, 1988


I’ve learned in Washington, that that’s the only place where sound travels faster than light.

Remarks at the annual convention of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in New York, December 12, 1983