This July 4th calls to mind the indelible words of two great Presidents, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. President Kennedy’s words form a great preface to the twenty we post of Reagan’s quotes. As we review these it is impossible to miss the far-sighted wisdom of these two great leaders. Readers decide… are we still free? Are we losing or winning? ARE WE STILL FIGHTING? And as Kennedy states: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” “The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”

1. Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free. – 1961
2. 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. – 1961
3. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. – 1964
4. Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. – 1965
5. There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism—government. – 1975
6. It was said by Lord Acton that power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power. In doing so we can only assure that we will eventually be totally subject to it. When dictators come to power, the first thing they do is take away the people’s weapons. It makes it so much easier for the secret police to operate, it makes it so much easier to force the will of the ruler upon the ruled. – 1975
7. The size of the Federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern. – 1981
8. If the big spenders get their way, they’ll charge everything on your Taxpayers Express Card. And believe me, they never leave home without it. – 1984
9. If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. – 1981
10. Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. – 1981
11. 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? – 1981
12. We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. – 1981
13. It is time for us to realize that we’re too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look. – 1981
14. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. – 1986
15. How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.– 1987
16. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help. – 1986
17. You can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy. – 1988
18. 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. – 1989
19. Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way. – 1989
20. Let’s close the place down and see if anybody notices. – 1995 (on the federal government shutdown)

If AMERICA is to survive, as a free and sovereign nation, NOW is the time to search out the old paths, the ones easily forgotten if not diligently taught by those who have lived history and have true values to impart. The job is for all, not to be delegated to media moguls, misguided educators or any other manipulative entities.

We owe a special debt of gratitude to our military for the many battles they have fought, many of which would never have occurred if this nation hadn’t derailed into the “softness” that men like Kennedy and Reagan dreaded would become our course.

For those who lose sleep so that others may get theirs… prayers that none in the fight for freedom be taken for granted.

Copyright 2023 Nancy Diraison/Diraison Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Respectful sharing permitted with appropriate credits.

(Dreamstime photo credits: JFK ID#116660338; Featured photo fireworks/liberty/flag ID#184165761; Ronald Reagan © Creative Commons Zero (CC0); USA/We the People ID#39365008; Stone stairway ID#118137580; Army Rangers ID#60779943)