SELECTED QUOTES FROM THE NOTES: RONALD REAGAN'S PRIVATE COLLECTION OF STORIES AND WISDOM

A selection of my favorites quotes from The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and

Wisdom. Interesting thoughts for recent events. These are his collection of his most intimate

thoughts, his favorite quotations by others, and his own most collectible jokes, all culled from a newly

disclosed set of personal note cards he kept throughout his life and career.

Government is a necessary evil — let us have as little of it as possible. --Thomas Paine

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. --Anonymous

He who knows no ports to sail for finds no winds favorable. --Seneca

Freedom from want must never be interpreted as freedom from the necessity to struggle.

-- George Washington

The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave. --Alexis De Tocqueville

It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required. --Winston Churchill

There can be only one possible defense policy for the U.S. It can be expressed in one word—the word is 1st. I do not mean 1st when—I don’t mean 1st if—I mean 1st, period.

-- John F. Kennedy

May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields & until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. --Irish Blessing

Any fool can criticize, condemn & complain—& most fools do. --Dale Carnegie

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

--Abraham Lincoln

People are beginning to realize that the apparatus of government is costly. But what they do not know is that the burden falls inevitably on them. -- Bastiat

Some people are so indecisive their favorite color is plaid.

--Anonymous

When the music of a nation becomes fast, wild & discordant it shows the nation is in confusion. --Chinese Proverb

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. --James Madison

He who would have nothing to do with thorns should never attempt to gather flowers. --Anonymous

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient become independent of it. --Judge Learned Hand

The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation, be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? --Thomas Jefferson (Prior to Writing Dec. of Independence, Inscribed on Jefferson Memorial, Wash. D.C.)

It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. -- Edmund Burke

When asked why she didn’t reply to her critics replied that if she were climbing a ladder & a dog came yapping at her heels she would have 2 choices. Either she could stop & kick the dog or she could continue to climb the ladder. She preferred to climb. --Marie Montessori

Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. --Winston Churchill

It will be of little avail to the people that laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before the are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow. --Alexander Hamilton

A perfect equality will indeed be produced—that is to say equal wretchedness, equal beggary, and on the part of partitioners a woeful, helpless and desperate disappointment. Such is the event of all compulsory equalizations. They pull down what is above; they never raise what is below; they depress high & low together, beneath the level of what was originally the lowest.

--Edmund Burke on The Threat of Socialism

Every time the government shifts to the left the decimal point in taxes shifts to the right. –Anonymous

Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

--Anonymous

I place economy among the first & most important virtues, & public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debt we must be taxed in our meat & drink, in our necessities & in our comforts, in our labor & amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. --Thomas Jefferson