The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom

by Ronald Reagan

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.

  Dwight Eisenhower

  The vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk its own destruction.

  Demosthenes, 1000 Years Ago—Athenian Mkt. Place

  What sane man would let another man’s words rather than his deeds tell him who is at war & who is at peace with him.

  General G. Macarthur, West Point ’62

  I do not know the dignity of their birth but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.

  Prayer Of Aristophanes Among Ruins of Greek Temple Destroyed in the Peloponnesian War

  From the murmur & subtlety of suspicion with which we vex one, another give us rest. Make a new beginning mingle again among the kindred of the nations with the alchemy of love; and with some finer essence of forbearance, temper our minds.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Great historical questions can be solved only by violence, & organization of violence in the modern struggle is a military organization.

  It would be madness to renounce coercion.

  Nikita Khrushchev

  We must realize that we cannot exist eternally, for a long time . . . one of us must go to his grave. The Ams. & the west do not want to go to their grave either so what can be done? We must push them to their grave.

  Feb. 1961, Gus Hall, American Communist Party, Funeral E. Dennis

  I dream of the hour when the last Congressman is strangled to death on the guts of the last preacher—and since the Christians seem to love to sing about blood, why not give them a little of it? Slit the throats of their children & draw them over the mourners bench and the pulpit, & allow them to drown in their own blood, & then see whether they enjoy singing those hymns.

  Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

  It is my purpose . . . to show how easily the tragedy of the Second World War could have been prevented; how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous; how the structure and habits of democratic states, unless they are welded into larger organisms, lack those elements of persistence and conviction which can alone give security to humble masses; how, even in matters of self-preservation, no policy is pursued for even ten or fifteen years at a time. We shall see how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bull’s-eye of disaster.

  ON THE PEOPLE

  Pope Pius 12th, End WWII

  The Am. people have a genius for great & unselfish deeds—into the hands of Am. God has placed an afflicted mankind. For men who could not see that what they firmly believed was liberalism added up to socialism could scarcely be expected to see what added up to communism. Any charge of comm. enraged them precisely because they could not grasp the differences between themselves and those against whom it was made.

  Hilaire Belloc

  We sit by & watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic invasion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large & awful faces from beyond; and on these faces there is no smile.

  Daniel Webster

  I sought for the greatness of Am. in her commodious harbors & her ample rivers & it was not there. In her fertile fields & boundless prairies & it was not there. In her rich mines & her vast world commerce & it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of Am. & heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and her power. Am. is great because she is good & if Am. ever ceases to be good Am. will cease to be great.

  Goethe Letter to Eckerman, 1828

  The truth must be repeated again & again because error is constantly being preached round about us. And not only by isolated individuals but by the majority. In the newspapers & encyclopedias, in the schools and Universities everywhere error is dominant, securely & comfortable ensconced in pub. opinion which is on its side.

  Chinese Proverb, 400 B.C.

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

  Abba Eban

  History shows that men & nations behave reasonably only when they have exhausted all other alternatives.

  Alexander Hamilton

  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.

  Thomas Jefferson, 1810

  A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the highest duties of a good citizen but it is not the highest. The law of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property & all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

  The lottery is a wonderful thing; it lays the taxation only on the willing.

  To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.

  If we can prevent govt. from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of taking care of them—they must become happy.

  The boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next & the sole guardian of the principles we deliver over to them.

  It is in the natural course of events that liberty recedes & govt. grows.

  I never considered a dif. of opinion in pols. in religion, in phil. as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

  The bulk of mankind are school boys through life. Ed. is the true corrective of abuses of const. power.

  The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own govt.

  George Washington

  It is not consistent with reason or justice to expect that one set of men should make a sacrifice of property, domestic ease & happiness encounter the rigid of the field, the perils & vicissitudes of war to obtain these blessings which every citizen will enjoy on common with them without some compensation.

  If any body of people are allowed to go unpunished to rise & disobey any law, all law & order would soon vanish.

  We must never parley or haggle with sedition, treason or lawlessness but must strike a blow that cannot be parried & at once.

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

  To Lafayette 1791: The tumultuous populace of the large cities are ever to be dreaded. Their indiscriminate violence frustrated for all time all pub. authority & its consequences are sometimes extensive & terrible.

  Alan C. Brownfield

  Ed. which trains in skills but does not teach values is deficient. Its emphasis today all too often does not seek to make the individual a thinking person but seeks to condition him to the generally accepted view of the common good.

  C. S. Lewis

  The older ed. was a kind of propagation—men transmitted manhood to man—the new is merely propaganda.

  Ortega Y. Gasset

  Civilization is not self supporting—it is artificial and requires the artist or the artisan. If you want to make use of the advantages of civilization but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization—you are done.

  Edmund Burke

  It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the pub. to be the m
ost anxious for its welfare.

  Abe Lincoln

  Labor was prior to capitalism but property is the fruit of labor. Prop. is desirable & is a positive good to the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich & hence is just encouragement to industry & enterprise.

  A man may be loyal to his govt. & still be opposed to the peculiar prins. & practices of the admin. in power.

  With public sentiment behind you, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible. Therefore, he who influences public sentiment performs a vastly more significant act than he who simply meets statutes.

  Winston Churchill

  The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world we learn we are spirits not animals. There is something going on in time & space & beyond time & space which whether we like it or not spells duty.

  F.D.R. on Public Employee Strikes

  I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organizations of govt. employees. A strike of pub. emps. manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of govt. until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of govt. by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable & intolerable.

  J.F.K.

  We are in danger of losing something solid at the core. We are losing that pilgrim & pioneer spirit of initiative and independence—that old-fashioned Spartan devotion to duty, honor & country.

  Ibn Khaldoun (Moslem Phil. 14th Century)

  At the beginning of the dynasty taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the Dynasty taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.

  Cicero

  A nation can survive its fools & even the ambitious but it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in an accent familiar to his victims & wears their face & their garments . . . he rots the soul of the nation. He works secretly & unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.

  Had there not been older men to undo the damage done by the young, there would be no states.

  Aspasia, Friend of Socrates, 429 B.C.

  I am baffled by Sparta, by its ugliness, its bigotry, its single minded dedication to turning out citizens who are anonymous efficient instruments of war. They are hemmed in by prejudice, allowed no contact with the outside world, have no choice but to believe what they are told.

  William Penn

  If men be good govt. cannot then be bad.

  Arnold Toynbee

  Hist. is the pattern of silken slippers descending the stairs & the thunder of hobnail boots coming up.

  Bastiat Addressing National Assembly—France, 12/12/1849

  When the people are encouraged to turn to govt. to settle all of their problems for them the basis of revolutions is thereby established. For then the people expect the govt. to provide them with all the material things they want. And when these things are not forthcoming they resort to violence to get them & why not since the govt. itself has told them that these responsibilities belong to govt. rather than to them? I am convinced that the revolution would not be possible, if the only relationship between govt. & the people was to guaranty them their liberty & security.

  Bastiat

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

  Founder Salvation Army—William Booth, At 83 & Nearly Blind

  While women weep as they do now—I’ll fight. While little children go hungry as they do now—I’ll fight. While there is a poor lost girl upon the street—I’ll fight. While there yet remains one dark soul without the light of God I’ll fight. I’ll fight to the very end.

  Dr. James Conant

  The greater proportion of our youth who attend private schools the greater the threat to our Dem. Unity.

  National Ed. Association 1934 Report

  A dying laissez-faire must be completely destroyed and all of us including the owners must be subjected to a large degree of social control.

  Yrs. Ago John D. Rockefeller Put His Asst. Fred Gates in Charge of His Tax Free Ed. Board. Paper No. 1 Said:

  In our dreams we have limitless resources & the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions fade from our minds & unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful & responsive rural folk.

  Samuel Gompers

  Doing for people what they can & ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. In the last analysis the welfare of the workers depends on their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy for social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers. Let social busy bodies & professional morals experts in their pads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under the pretense of social welfare.

  The company that doesn’t make a profit is the enemy of the working man.

  U.S. National Labor Paper

  The time has come to put into effect a single integrated Fed. system guaranteeing cradle to grave security against the hazards of illness, disability, work injury & old age.

  Adolph Hitler

  We shall banish want, we shall banish fear. The essence of National Socialism is human welfare rooted in a fuller life for every German from childhood to old age.

  Dr. Alex Fraser Tytler on Athens Fall 2000 Years Ago

  A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of govt. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the pub. treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result the democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy always to be followed by a dictatorship.

  Leonard Read

  Regardless of theoretical pretentions, socialism is nothing but the application of dictatorial power.

  Anonymous

  In the late 60’s, a group of drs. formed an org. to ed. people about Socialized medicine. The I.R.S. ruled—“opposing socialism in the med. or other segments of the economoy or supporting the principles of individual lib. & freedom of the individual in the med. profession or elsewhere are not in our opinion per se educational functions or objectives & you are not entitled to take deductions from your Fed. income tax.”

  Poem

  The snow was blowing out of doors—the drifts were piling high, and I could see the pedestrians as they were passing by. The faces of my Irish friends came dimly through the glass, as they trudged the icy streets to worship at their mass. I watched a while, went back to bed and cuddled safe & sound as they braved those icy blasts on a sacred duty bound. I envy them their strength of heart, the faith that they renew, but on an ice cold Sunday morn it’s good to be a Jew.

  Poem “Teacher”—Clark Mollenhoff

  You are the molders of their dreams—the Gods who build or crush their young beliefs of Rt. or Wrong. You are the spark that sets aflame the poet’s hand or lights the flame of some great singer’s song. You are the God of the young—the very young. You are the guardians of a million dreams. Your every smile or frown can heal or pierce a heart. Yours are 100 lives—1000 lives. Yours the pride of loving them, the sorrow too. Your patient work, your touch make you the God of hope—that fills their souls with dreams—to make those dreams come true.

  Lord Moulton

  True civilization is measured by the extent of obedience to the unenforceable.

  2nd Thessalonians 3:10

  If anyone does not want to work then he should not eat either.

  Acts 19:32

  Some therefore cried one thing & some another for the assembly was confused; & the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.