Ronald Reagan Zitate

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Rede vor den Future Farmers of America, 28. Juli 1988

21. September 1980 im Vorwahlkampf um das Präsidentenamt, Debatte mit seinem innerparteilichen Wettbewerber John Anderson
Original engl.: "With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, there's one individual who's not being considered at all. That's the one who is being aborted. And I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born." - debates.org http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=september-21-1980-debate-transcript

Rede vor dem Brandenburger Tor, 12. Juni 1987
Original engl.: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev -- Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - americanhistoric.com http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganbrandenburggate.htm

Rede vor der Universität von Südkarolina am 20. September 1983 in Columbia. Rede bei Entgegennahme der Ehrendoktorwürde (Honorary Doctor of Laws) der Universität von Südkarolina in Columbia am 20. September 1983. Übers.: Wikiquote Original engl.: "There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder." - reagan.utexas.edu http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/92083c.htm Ähnlich bei seiner zweiten Amtseinführung am 21. Januar 1985: "Es gibt keine Grenzen für Wachstum und menschlichen Fortschritt, wenn Männer und Frauen frei sind, ihren Träumen zu folgen." - DIE ZEIT 3/1988 https://www.zeit.de/1988/03/die-obdachlosen-von-washington/seite-2 "By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our strength toward the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly society. We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams." - https://www.bartleby.com/124/pres62.html

Rede vor dem Brandenburger Tor, 12. Juni 1987 Übers.: Wikiquote
Original engl.: "President Von Weizsäcker has said, "The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed." Today I say: As long as this gate is closed [...], it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind."

Antrittsrede als 40. Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten, 20. Januar 1981

in einem Interview der "Fresno Bee", 10. Oktober 1965. zitiert in: Wolfgang Schneider: "Apokalypse Vietnam". Rowohlt, 2000. S. 201
Original engl.: "It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas."

Antrittsrede als 40. Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten am 20. Januar 1981, zitiert in DER SPIEGEL 41/1988 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13530876.html. Häufiger und wohl auch treffender zitiert als: "Der Staat ist nicht die Lösung, er ist das Problem", z.B. in Süddeutsche Zeitung 6. Februar 2011 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/ronald-reagan-geburtstag-zu-einfach-gedacht-1.1055631. "Government" bezeichnet im amerikanischen Sprachgebrauch nicht nur den Präsidenten und sein Kabinett, sondern den gesamten Staatsapparat im Gegensatz zur Privatwirtschaft. Von dieser erwartet Reagan sich die Lösung bestehender wirtschaftlicher Probleme, die durch staatliche Eingriffe eher erschwert werde.
Original engl.: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." - :en:s:Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address, youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IleiqUDYpFQ ab min. 6:12

(Original englisch: "My years in show business and the experience of making thousands of speeches over the years probably taught me something about timing and cadence and how to reach an audience. Here's my formula: I usually start with a joke or story to catch the audience's attention; then I tell them what I am going to tell them, I tell them, and then I tell them what I just told them." - An American Life. Simon & Schuster 1990. p. 247 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=cYnFVI7PW1YC&pg=PA247.

Remarks Announcing America's Economic Bill of Rights http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/070387a.htm (3 July 1987)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Kontext: It's reported that John Adams' last words were, "Thomas Jefferson survives." History tells us, however, that Jefferson had died shortly before John Adams passed away. But Adams was right. All of us stand in tribute to the truth of those words. We proclaim it again and again with our dedication to keeping this a land of liberty and justice for all, and through our deeds and actions, to ensure that this country remains a bastion of freedom, the last best hope for mankind. As long as a love of liberty is emblazoned on our hearts, Jefferson lives.

Address to the Nation (27 July 1981) http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/72781d.htm
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Kontext: This is not the time for political fun and games. This is the time for a new beginning. I ask you now to put aside any feelings of frustration or helplessness about our political institutions and join me in this dramatic but responsible plan to reduce the enormous burden of Federal taxation on you and your family.

1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Kontext: Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man, George Washington, father of our country. A man of humility who came to greatness reluctantly. He led Americans out of revolutionary victory into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence. And then, beyond the Reflecting Pool, the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, the Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno, and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam.
Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire.
We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God's help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (1961 LP)
1960s
Kontext: But at the moment I'd like to talk about another way because this threat is with us and at the moment is more imminent. One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project.... Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this.

Signing statement on the ratification of the United Nations Convention on Torture http://deadconfederates.com/2014/12/10/prosecute-them/ (1984)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)
Kontext: The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today. The core provisions of the Convention establish a regime for international cooperation in the criminal prosecution of torturers relying on so-called "universal jurisdiction." Each State Party is required either to prosecute torturers who are found in its territory or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution.

While signing the Bill Providing Restitution for the Wartime Internment of Japanese-American Civilians, quoting himself at the funeral of Kazuo Masuda in December 1945 (10 August 1988) http://history.wisc.edu/archdeacon/404tja/redress.html
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Kontext: Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.

Radio commentary (August 1975)
1970s
Kontext: Right now our main effort is directed toward oxides of nitrogen which comes out of automobile tail pipe and cause the photochemical reactions which color the air a muddy brown. There is no question they are a problem in areas like L. A. where we have a more or less constant temperature inversion trapping the air. But Dr. [John] McKetta lists the findings in his field as his no. 3 shock & surprise. Nature it seems also produces oxides of nitrogen. As a matter of fact nature produces 97% of them.

A speech to the American Bar Association after the TWA Flight 847 hijacking. James Bovard, Terrorism and Tyranny, p. 23 http://books.google.de/books?id=VQoH4fy4m88C&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=We+are+especially+not+going+to+tolerate+these+attacks+from+outlaw+states+run+by+the+strangest+collection+of+misfits,+Looney+Tunes+and+squalid+criminals+since+the+advent+of+the+Third+Reich&source=bl&ots=tv3daFha5S&sig=M4GXSs9s1uDXNnykGGcr14jaE6g&hl=de&ei=pbe-TMf6OoTLswb18M3FDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=We%20are%20especially%20not%20going%20to%20tolerate%20these%20attacks%20from%20outlaw%20states%20run%20by%20the%20strangest%20collection%20of%20misfits%2C%20Looney%20Tunes%20and%20squalid%20criminals%20since%20the%20advent%20of%20the%20Third%20Reich&f=false
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Kontext: Americans … are not going to tolerate intimidation, terror and outright acts of war against this nation and its people. And we are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich … There can be no place on earth where it is safe for these monsters to rest, or train or practice their cruel and deadly. We must act together – or unilateraly, if necessary – to ensue that these terrorists have no sanctuary, anywhere.

up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order — or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
1960s, A Time for Choosing (1964)

Said often during his presidency (1981–1989)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)

Remarks to Future Farmers of America http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/072888c.htm (28 July 1988)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 1982
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)

At the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California http://www.planbproductions.com/postnobills/reagan1.html (4 November 1991), the inscription on Reagan's tomb
Post-presidency (1989–2004)

Variante: Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer.

Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/081586e.htm (15 August 1986)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)

Letter to Lance Cpl. Joe Hickey http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,88163,00.html (23 September 1983), R.W. "Dick" Gaines http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/marinesquote.html refers in detail
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985)

1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989), Farewell Address (1989)
Kontext: I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Remarks at a business conference in Los Angeles (2 March 1977)
1970s

Some sources indicate the phrase 'government is the problem' was not part of the speech. (E.g. yale.edu http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/reagan1.asp). Live recordings of the address demonstrate that Reagan did indeed use the phrase in question. See Ronald Reagan: First Inaugural Address http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IleiqUDYpFQ; start at 6:08
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Variante: In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem
Kontext: In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time 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 governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

1960s, A Time for Choosing (1964)
Variante: The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.