In the words of RONALD REAGAN

On abortion Reagan said, "If you don't know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it.  Until someone can prove the unborn child is not a life, shouldn't we give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is?"  "These children, over tenfold the number of Americans lost in all our nation's wars, will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love; nor will they strive to heal the sick, or feed the poor, or make peace among nations.  Abortion has denied them the first and most basic of human rights, and we are infinitely poorer for their loss." (pg. 212,213)

On human nature Reagan said of a lawyer and a farmer who had collided with one another in a head-on collision, "They both staggered out of their cars.  The farmer took one look at the lawyer, walked back to his car, took out a package, and brought it back.  There was a bottle inside, and he said, 'Here, you look pretty shaken up.  I think you ought to take a nip of this; it'll steady your nerves.'  So the lawyer did.  Then the farmer said, 'You still look a little bit pale.  How about another?'  And the lawyer took another swallow.  At the farmer's urging, he took another and another and another.  Finally he said he was feeling pretty good, and asked the farmer if he didn't think that he ought to have a little nip too.  The farmer said, 'Not me.  I'm waiting for the state trooper.'" (pg. 210)

After being charged in a letter for lack of compassion Reagan responded, "I'm sure everyone feels sorry for the individual who has fallen by the wayside or who can't keep up in our competitive society, but my own compassion goes beyond that to those millions of unsung men and women who get up every morning, send the kids to school, go to work, try to keep up the payments on their house, pay exorbitant taxes to make possible compassion for the less fortunate, and as a result have to sacrifice many of their own desires and dreams and hopes.  Government owes them something better than always finding a new way to make them share the fruit of their toils with others." (Pg. 69)

(Quotations taken from the book RONALD REAGAN - How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader by Dinesh D'Souza; The Free Press, A division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York; 1997)