Great Leaders
Biographies
Quotable Quotes
Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican."
"Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15."
- Ronald Reagan, quoted in the New York Times, October 10, 1984
"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!"
- Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987
"In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."
- Ronald Reagan, November 5, 1994 (from his letter to the American people revealing his Alzheimer's diagnosis)
"Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good
unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very
evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as
an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise
and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or
public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No
man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to
infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation
deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile
virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the
growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged
indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification
of a warped and twisted sentimentality."
- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1906 (excerpt from his acceptance
speech, upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize). [The complete text of President Roosevelt's acceptance speech can be found here.]
Comment by Charles Barksdale, former Central Committee member: The sharp contrast between President Theodore Roosevelt's philosophy, and that of Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton - as well as the other apologists for terror on the left - is striking. We, as Republicans, are of course proud to carry the banner of Teddy Roosevelt's "stern and virile virtues." T. Roosevelt's "coward and . . . voluptuary" foreshadow Carter, Clinton, and the whole new millennium Democratic Party. And T. Roosevelt's call to "fight rather than submit to infamy" is a timeless argument in support of President's Bush's pre-emptive policy re: terrorist states - not a new and dangerous policy as today's Democratic "coward[s] and "voluptuar[ies]" would have it. Criticisms of President Bush by the new millennium Democrats are indeed a "mask for cowardice and sloth."
'Today there are once more saints and villains. Instead of the uniform grayness of the rainy day, we have the black storm cloud and brilliant lightning flash. Outlines stand out with exaggerated sharpness. Shakespeare's characters walk among us. The villain and the saint emerge from primeval depths and by their appearance tear open the infernal or the divine abyss from which they come and enable us to see for a moment into mysteries of which we had never dreamed.' - Ethik, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1940. [Quoted by Andrew Sullivan on 3-20-02
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