To many of us now, computers, silicon chips, data processing, cybernetics, and all the other innovations of the dawning high technology age are as mystifying as the workings of the combustion engine must have been when that first Model T rattled down Main Street, U.S.A. But as surely as America's pioneer spirit made us the industrial giant of the 20th century, the same pioneer spirit today is opening up on another vast front of opportunity, the frontier of high technology.

America was founded by people who believed that God was their rock of safety. He is ours. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it's all right to keep asking if we're on His side.

The United States is the economic miracle, the model to which the world once again turns. We stand for an idea whose time is now: Only by lifting the weights from the shoulders of all can people truly prosper and can peace among all nations be secure.

You know, we only have a military-industrial complex until a time of danger, and then it becomes the arsenal of democracy. Spending for defense is investing in things that are priceless -- peace and freedom.

America in the world is only as strong as America at home.

We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in doing so lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.

RONALD REAGAN, a reference to Vietnam during his nationally televised speech given on behalf of Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign, "A Time for Choosing", October. 27, 1964

Despite our strides in civil rights, blacks, Hispanics, and all minorities will not have full and equal power until they have full economic power.

The heart of America is strong; it's good and true. The cynics were wrong; America never was a sick society.

I just happen to believe that free enterprise can do a better job of producing the things that people need than Government can. The Department of Energy has a multibillion-dollar budget, in excess of $10 billion. It hasn't produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal or anything else in the line of energy.

We speak with pride and admiration of that little band of Americans who overcame insuperable odds to set this nation on course 200 years ago. But our glory didn't end with them. Americans ever since have emulated their deeds.

We cannot win the race to the future shackled to a system that can't even pass a Federal budget. We cannot win that race held back by horse-and-buggy programs that waste tax dollars and squander human potential. We cannot win that race if we're swamped in a sea of red ink.

If the family goes, so goes our civilization.

We owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

We honor the giants of our history not by going back but forward to the dreams their vision foresaw.

Let's stop suppressing the spiritual core of our national being. Our nation could not have been conceived without divine help. Why is it that we can build a nation with our prayers, but we can't use a schoolroom for voluntary prayer.

No domestic challenge is more crucial than providing stable, permanent jobs for all Americans who want to work.

The Space Age is barely a quarter of a century old. But already we've pushed civilization forward with our advances in science and technology. Opportunities and jobs will multiply as we cross new thresholds of knowledge and reach deeper into the unknown.

We do not face large deficits because American families are undertaxed; we face those deficits because the Federal Government overspends.

In debating the past, we must not deny ourselves the successes of the future. Let it never be said of this generation of Americans that we became so obsessed with failure that we refused to take risks that could further the cause of peace and freedom in the world.

It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.

RONALD REAGAN, interview, Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965

The current tax code is a daily mugging.

RONALD REAGAN, Labor Day address in Independence, Missouri, October 2, 1985

The Unknown Soldier who is returned to us today and whom we lay to rest is symbolic of all our missing sons, and we will present him with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration that we can bestow.

RONALD REAGAN, remarks on Memorial Day, 1984

The changes in this legislation will allow Social Security to age as gracefully as all of us hope to do ourselves, without becoming an overwhelming burden on generations still to come.... Our elderly need no longer fear that the checks they depend on will be stopped or reduced. These amendments protect them. Americans of middle age need no longer worry whether their career-long investment will pay off. These amendments guarantee it. And younger people can feel confident that Social Security will still be around when they need it to cushion their retirement.

RONALD REAGAN, speech, April 20, 1982

We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.

RONALD REAGAN, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 1982

We owe it to Ryan to make sure that the fear and ignorance that chased him from his home and his school will be eliminated. We owe it to Ryan to open our hearts and our minds to those with AIDS. We owe it to Ryan to be compassionate, caring and tolerant toward those with AIDS, their families and friends. It's the disease that's frightening, not the people who have it.

RONALD REAGAN, "We Owe It to Ryan", Washington Post, January 11, 1990

All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.

RONALD REAGAN, Burlington Free Press, February 15, 1980

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

RONALD REAGAN, remarks on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984

You know, I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon and I find myself wondering ... if we're the generation to see that come about. I don't know if you've noted any of these prophecies lately, but believe me, they certainly describe the times we're going through.

RONALD REAGAN, statement in October 1983, To Win a Nuclear War: The Pentagon's Secret War Plans

We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that was probably true. They were all on a diet.

RONALD REAGAN, speech, "A Time for Choosing", October 27, 1964

We are first; we are the best; and we are so because we're free.