Ronald Reagan Quotes

Producing more reams of detailed policies that have marginal and limited effects on our society is futile.

The realization is dawning that government doesn't work. In Silicon Valley, they already get this. And they are bright enough to be asking what we can do to solve problems.

You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.

I want you to learn nothing from government. This place is dead intellectually. It does not produce any ideas; it is all about turf battles and checking the box. Your job is to break through all this.

Most governments and people want reform. It’s the prospect of change that makes reform rare.

The question of our time is rapidly becoming can government get things done?

The fact that policies often fail for no good reason is annoying but less depressing than the view that it is a big conspiracy against the poor… Name your favorite enemy… capitalism, corruption … Our view is easier. You think hard about the problems and you can solve them.

If you're trying to understand why it is that certain things happen in Sacramento and certain things don't, at the end of the day, it comes down to the issue of incentives: We do what we're incentivized to do.

It's one thing to change regulations on the city level, another on the state, and still another on the federal. The higher the levels are, the more difficult change gets.

In a large bureaucracy, you cannot exercise the transformation of any situation without coopting bureaucracy.

You know there's problems - you can see all the poverty and so on - but it's quite another matter to know what you can do about it.

If you can't legislate, you can't deal with problems.

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.

We can't solve all of our problems in a short time.

I really do not know. I really do not know how to solve the problem of the Philippines. I cannot be the savior of this republic.

While the 20th century saw the world divided between a Communist East and a free and democratic West, new and different struggles define the 21st.

The only way really to influence countries, in terms of poverty, is to get them to change their policies and get them to understand what the issues are.

As we have seen both in healthcare and energy, passing reckless, ill-conceived massive bills usually create more problems than we solve.

There is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if there's one thing I've learned throughout my work in finance, government, and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage.

We need to get around a table, have a serious discussion about the holistic problems in our immigration system, and craft a common-sense solution.

Life is politics.

Meeting the challenges of the future requires a state that can think and act strategically.

I harbor no illusion that government and elected office is a panacea for all of society's ills.

Only a state with resources can deplete poverty.

Look, I'm not expecting the establishment to suddenly open their arms to Donald Trump. But considering their own role in creating the long-term challenges that this president is now addressing, could they just show a little humility before embarking on their next Trump-hating rant?