Ronald Reagan Quotes

Our economic freedom is founded on individual property rights; government should never be permitted to take those away.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

In this country protection has always, to some extent, existed; but at some times it has been efficient, and at others not; and our tendency toward freedom or slavery has always been in the direct ratio of its efficiency or inefficiency.

The government has no business telling an individual what kind of light bulb to buy.

Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

The invisible hand of the market always moves faster and better than the heavy hand of government.

Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.

Political freedom can be inimical to economic freedom.

I do not believe in government ownership of anything which can with propriety be left in private hands, and in particular I should most strenuously object to government ownership of railroads. In my judgment public ownership of railroads is highly undesirable and would probably in this country entail far-reaching disaster.

Regulation of private enterprise and not Government ownership or operation is the course rightly to be pursued in our relation to business.

If exclusive privileges of this character [monopolies] can be granted to a corporation of seventeen persons, they may, in the discretion of the legislature, be equally granted to a single individual. If they may be granted for twenty-give years they may be equally granted for a century, and in perpetuity. If they may be granted for landing and keeping of animals intended for sale or slaughter they may be equally granted for the landing and storing of grain and other products of the earth, or for any article of commerce. If they may be granted for structures in which animal food is prepared for market they may be equally granted for structures in which farinaceous or vegetable food is prepared. They may be granted for any of the pursuits of human industry, even in its most simple and common forms. Indeed, upon the theory on which the exclusive privileges granted by the act in question are sustained, there is no monopoly, in the most odious form, which may not be upheld.

I will not permit my government to be influenced by the markets.

The best thing that governments can do is get out of business. When governments interfere less, managers can do their jobs better.

The government playing entrepreneur is not a good role for the government.

Our economy will not prosper as long as it is monopolised (by the government). The economy must be rid of monopoly and see competition, it must be freed of insider speculation, be transparent, all people must be aware of the statistics. If we can bring transparency to our economy, we can fight corruption.

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine.

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project, most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.

Government control of the economy, no matter in whose behalf, has been the source of all the evils in our industrial society -- and the solution is laissez-faire capitalism, i.e., the abolition of any and all forms of intervention in production and trade, the separation of State and Economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of Church and State.

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.

The only things government can do are regulate and redistribute, prohibit and penalize, confiscate and command. Are these the things that liberty is made of? Somebody else's money and an endless list of Thou Shalt Nots?

Americans are sick of the idea of the government taking over everything and trying to run it. We don't know how to run a bank, a car company.

I am opposed to all forms of control; I am for an absolute laissez faire, free, unregulated economy. I am for the separation of the state and economics, just as we had separation of state and church, which led to peaceful coexistence among different religions...so the same applies to economics. If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, and harmony and justice among men.

Free enterprise has enabled the creative and the acquisitive urges of man to be given expression in a way which benefits all members of society. Let free enterprise fight back now, not for itself, but for all those who believe in freedom.

The merchants will manage [commerce] the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves.

Without question, the true goal of some in Congress is to create a system of socialized medicine. It's politically expedient to slap a "patients’ rights" label on legislation that simply leads us closer to a complete government takeover of medicine.