If we get the federal government out of the classroom, maybe we'll get God back in.

When those who are governed do too little, those who govern can - and often will - do too much.

Government is not the solution, but rather the cause of our problems.

When people tell me that I became President on January 20th, 1981, I feel I have to correct them. You don't become President of the United States. You are given temporary custody of an institution called the Presidency, which belongs to our people.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get there. That's how I saw it, and see it still.