Today is the 106th birthday of Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States. Reagan wasa great lover of America and one of the most eloquent advocates of liberty in modern history

In honor of his birthday, here are six quotes on freedom by President Reagan:

Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuing revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows us to recognize shortcomings and seek solutions. It is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts, and watch it catch fire among the people. It is the right to dream to follow your dream or stick to your conscience, even if youre the only one in a sea of doubters. Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put on this world has been put there for a reason and has something to offer. (Source)

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didnt pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our childrens children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. (Source)

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of mans relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. (Source)

With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, theres one individual whos not being considered at all. Thats the one who is being aborted. And Ive noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born. (Source)

If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay the price. (Source)

The dreams of people may differ, but everybody wants their dreams to come true. And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that. (Source)

Contents include: Section I - The History of Liberty; Section II - The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty; Section III - Liberty and the Modern Nation-State.

Joe Carter Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).

Originally posted here:

6 Quotes: Ronald Reagan on freedom - Acton Institute (blog)