The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 12

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 12

1.      Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

2.      All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states. The States created the federal government.

3.      All of us should remember that the federal government is not some mysterious institution comprised of buildings, files, and paper. The people are the government. What we create we ought to be able to control.

4.      I can’t help thinking, while much of the 20^th Century saw the rise of the federal government; the 21^st Century will be the century of the states.

5.      I have always believed that America is strongest and freest and happiest when it is truest to the wisdom of its founders.

6.      The explorers of the modern era are the entrepreneurs. Men with vision; with the courage to take risks, and faith enough to brave the unknown.

7.      And on my way to the hall, a fellow recognized me and asked me what I was doing in Las Vegas. And I told him what I was there for. And he said ‘What are a bunch of farmers doing in a place like Las Vegas?’ And I couldn't resist. I said, ‘Buster, they’re in a business that makes a Las Vegas crap table look like a guaranteed annual income.’

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 11

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 11

1.      There seems to be an increasing awareness of something we Americans have known for some time: That the ten most dangerous words in the English language are, “Hi, I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

2.      Despite the spread of democracy and capitalism, human nature has not changed. It is still an unpredictable mixture of good and evil.

3.      Our enemies may be irrational, even outright insane – driven by nationalism, religion, ethnicity or ideology.

4.      The hope of human freedom – the quest for it, the achievement of it – is the American saga.

5.      Bismarck reflected once that the supreme fact of the 19^th century was that Great Britain and the United States shared the same language.

6.      As most of you know, Margaret and I go back quite a ways. We met at a time before she was Prime Minister and I became President. From the moment we met, we discovered that we shared quite similar views of government and freedom.

7.      Margaret ended our first meeting by telling me, “we must stand together,” and that’s exactly what we've done in the years since – as friends and political allies. Margaret is one of the giants of our century. Her many achievements will be appreciated more and more as time goes on and history is written.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 10

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 10

1.      Our national purpose is to unleash the full talent and genius of the individual, not to create mass movement with the citizenry subjecting themselves to the whims of the state.

2.      The principles of wealth creation transcend time, people, and place.

3.      Governments which deliberately subvert them by denouncing God, smothering faith, denouncing freedom, and confiscating wealth have impoverished their people.

4.      We are a nation that finds change and innovation to be a tonic.

5.      Before I took up my current line of work, I got to know a thing or two about negotiating when I represented the Screen Actors Guild in contract talks with the studios. After the studios, Gorbachev was a snap.

6.      The air we breathe is also invisible and taken for granted, yet if it is denied even for a few seconds, we realize instantly how much it means to us. Well, so too with freedom.

7.      Freedom is not created by government, not is it a gift from those in political power. It is, in fact, secured more than anything else by those limitations I mentioned that are placed on those in government.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 09

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 09

Ronald Reagan was called the great communicator. He could turn enemies into friends. Out of all American presidents, history will put him at the caliber of Abraham Lincoln. Ronald Reagan communicated truth during a time when the country needed a leader to lead our great nation and the world.

1.      As is always the case, once people who have been deprived of basic freedom taste a little of it, they want all of it.

2.      And may I conclude with a little Irish blessing – although, some suggest it’s a curse: May those who love us, love us. And those who don’t love us, may God turn their hearts. And if He doesn't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping.

3.      I don’t know all the national anthems of the world, but I know this: the only anthem of those that I know that ends with a question is ours, and may it be ever thus. Does that banner still wave “o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

4.      Every lesson of history tells us that appeasement does not lead to peace.

5.      Tragically, those who seemingly want peace the most, our young people, pay the heaviest price for our failure to maintain our strength.

6.      My favorite cartoon of the last few years was one – right after we really began rebuilding our military – of two Russian generals. And one of them was saying to the other, “I liked the arms race better when we were the only ones in it.”

7.      In this land occurred the only true revolution in man’s history. All others revolutions simply exchanged one set of rulers for another. Here for the first time the Founding Fathers – that little band of men so advanced beyond their time that the world has never seen their like since – evolved a government based on the idea that you and I have the God-given right and ability within ourselves to determine our own destiny.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 08

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 08

1.      Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the prerogative of a chosen few. It is the universal right of all God’s children.

2.      Those nations and states which have secured man’s highest aspirations for freedom, opportunity and justice, have always been those willing to trust their people, confident that their skills and their talents are equal to any challenge.

3.      Having a little bit of freedom is like being a little bit pregnant. It isn't possible. One must be entirely free to think bold – even heretical – thoughts and to communicate them.

4.      It was the British historian Arnold Toynbee who defined life as a voyage of discovery and not a sage harbor. How True.

5.      After a lifetime spanning most of this tumultuous century, my voyage is drawing to a close. It has been an extraordinary trip by any standard.

6.      With my own eyes, I have witnessed the birth of communism and the death of communism.

7.      Your world is poised for better tomorrows. What will you do on your journey?

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 07

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 07

1.      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.

2.      Terrorism is the preferred weapon of weak and evil men.

3.      Progress is not foreordained. The key is freedom: Freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of communication.

4.      The quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual.

5.      I believe that the most essential element of our defense of freedom is our insistence on speaking out for the cause of religious liberty.

6.      Life and the preservation of freedom to live it in dignity is what we are on this earth to do.

7.      It’s our earnest prayer to serve America in peace. It’s our solemn commitment to defend her in a time of war.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 06

The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan – 06

1.      History demonstrates that time and again, in place after place, economic growth and human progress make the greatest strides in countries that encourage economic freedom.

2.      With sound understanding of our domestic freedom and responsibilities, we can construct effective international cooperation. Without it, no amount of international good will and action can produce prosperity.

3.      We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and, ultimately, human fulfillment are created from the bottom up, not government down.

4.      Everyday life confirms the fundamentally human and democratic ideal that individual effort deserves an economic reward. Nothing is more crushing to the spirit of working people and to the vision of development itself than the absence of reward for honest toil and legitimate risk.

5.      We cannot have prosperity and successful development without economic freedom; not can we preserve our personal and political freedoms without economic freedom.

6.      Those which put freedom as the first priority find they have also provided security and economic progress.

7.      It’s no secret that I wear a hearing aid. Well, just the other day, all of a sudden, it went haywire. We discovered the KGB had put a listening device in my listening device.

Thank you for reading and reflecting on today’s nuggets. Share them with others.   

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy