-LEADERSHIP-
"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness." (1964)

-COURAGE-
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (1987)

"There are no easy answers but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what is morally right." (1964)

"No...weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

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

"A government bureau is the nearest thing we'll ever see to eternal life on this earth." (1964)

"The government's view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it." (1986)

"Government is like a big baby - an alimentary canal with a big appetite on the one end and no sense of responsibility on the other." (1965)

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

President Ronald Reagan was once challenged by a college student who said it was impossible for Reagan's generation to understand his.

"You grew up in a different world," the student said. "Today we have television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, computers..."

Taking advantage of a pause in the student's litany, Reagan said, "You're right. We didn't have those things when we were young. We invented them."

"Do you know how to tell when politicians are lying?"
President Reagan's jokingly answer:
"When their lips are moving."

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."

"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."

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