We can learn from Kennedy, Jefferson and Reagan

This President’s day, it is appropriate to note a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan:



John Kennedy once said to a assembled group of scholars in the White House: I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of Human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House -- with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Kennedy would have also recommended we heed Ronald Reagan...

The quotes below could prove his point.

“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical,”

- Thomas Jefferson


The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

~Thomas Jefferson:


It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

~Thomas Jefferson:

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

~Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

~Thomas Jefferson


”We don’t have a billion-dollar debt because we have not taxed enough, but we have a billion dollar debt because we spend too much.” – Ronald Reagan



We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. -Ronald Reagan


You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
- Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964


"If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you're liable to be given more money to do it with. Well, we've discovered that money alone isn't the answer." -- President Ronald Reagan

Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.
--Ronald Reagan


“I hope you will travel … with liberty’s lamp guiding your way.” -- Ronald Reagan