The best view of big government is in the rearview mirror as we leave it behind.

If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

Some months before I declared, I asked for a meeting and crossed the border to meet with the president of Mexico. I did not go with a plan. I went, as I said in my announcement address, to ask him his ideas - how we could make the border something other than a locale for a nine-foot fence.

It doesn't do any good to hold the door open for someone if they don't have a way to walk through it. And if they do have a way to pass through it then you probably don't need to hold it open because they can open it for themselves.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

We've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion, but what's important.