Ronald Reagan

American president and actor.



Science Quotes by Ronald Reagan (15 quotes)

A space station will permit quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, in metals, and in lifesaving medicines which could be manufactured only in space.



— Ronald Reagan



From State of the Union Address (25 Jan 1984).



America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.



— Ronald Reagan



From State of the Union Address (25 Jan 1984).



Education is like a diamond with many facets: It includes the basic mastery of numbers and letters that give us access to the treasury of human knowledge, accumulated and refined through the ages; it includes technical and vocational training as well as instruction in science, higher mathematics, and humane letters.



— Ronald Reagan



In Proclamation 5463, for Education Day (19 Apr 1986). Collected in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1986 (1988), 490.



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Science quotes on: | Access

Environmental extremists ... wouldnt let you build a house unless it looked like a birds nest.



— Ronald Reagan



As quoted by Kathy Koch, 'Candidates Come Clean on Environmental Positions', in the Florida newspaper Lakeland Ledger (25 Oct 1980), 11A.



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Science quotes on: | Bird

I am not a scientist.



— Ronald Reagan



Denying that his 1984 directive target of 24 shuttle missions per year put pressure on the program that resulted in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, Reagan said he only approved the schedule as it was provided by the scientists at NASA. From 'Interview With Representatives of the Baltimore Sun' (12 Mar 1986). Collected in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1986 (1988), 332. Earlier, Reagan had also said Im not a scientist, in an 'Exchange With Reporters on the Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger' (28 Jan 1986), ibid. 93.



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Science quotes on: | Communism

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering those nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

About his proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, later to be known as 'Star Wars.')



— Ronald Reagan



National address (23 Mar 1983)



I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens out on our West Coast. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that people are so concerned about.



— Ronald Reagan



Address in Steubenville, Ohio (7 Oct 1980). As quoted in Douglas E. Kneeland, 'Teamsters Back Republican', New York Times (10 Oct 1980), D14. The article also stated that according to an E.P.A. spokesman, all American manmade emissions of sulfur dioxide amounted to 81,000 tons a day, and the emissions from the volcano ranged from 500 to 2,000 tons a day.



I know Teddy Kennedy had fun at the Democratic convention when he said that I said that trees and vegetation caused 80 percent of the air pollution in this country. ... Well, now he was a little wrong about what I said. I didn't say 80 percent. I said 92 percent93 percent, pardon me. And I didnt say air pollution, I said oxides of nitrogen. Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen. ... If we are totally successful and can eliminate all the manmade oxides of nitrogen, well still have 93 percent as much as we have in the air today.

[Reagan reconfirming his own pathetic lack of understanding of air pollutants.]



— Ronald Reagan



Address to senior citizens at Sea World, Orlando, Florida (9 Oct 1980). As quoted later in Douglas E. Kneeland, 'Teamsters Back Republican', New York Times (10 Oct 1980), D14.



I saw them; there is nothing beautiful about them, just that they are a little higher than the others.

Referring to one of the oldest and loveliest groves of redwoods, showing insensitivity to their magnificence.



— Ronald Reagan



(15 Mar 1967)



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Science quotes on: | Beautiful

I think, too, that we've got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you've looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of treesyou know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?



— Ronald Reagan



Speech, pandering for support, while candidate for governor of California, to the Western Wood Products Association, San Francisco (12 Mar 1966), opposing expansion of Redwood National Park. Commonly seen paraphrased as If youve seen one redwood tree, youve seen them all, but Reagan did not himself express this wording.



John Young and Bob Crippen have made us very proud. Their deeds reminded us that we as a free people can accomplish whatever we set out to do. Nothing binds our abilities except our expectations, and, given that, the farthest star is within our reach.



— Ronald Reagan



At Oval Office ceremony (20 May 1981) awarding NASA Distinguished Service medals to Young and Crippen, and a Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Young.



The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith.



— Ronald Reagan



Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 28



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Science quotes on: | Crisis

Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.



— Ronald Reagan



As quoted by Martin Schram, 'Nation's Longest Campaign Comes to an End,' Washington Post (4 Nov 1980), A1. As cited in Paul Waldman, Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You (2004), 92. Webmaster suspects this may be a reporter's summation, rather than a verbatim quote. See longer version on this web page.



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Science quotes on: | Automobile

Well, it [evolution] is a theory, it is a scientific theory only, and it has in recent years been challenged in the world of science and is not yet believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was believed. But if it was going to be taught in the schools, then I think that also the biblical theory of creation, which is not a theory but the biblical story of creation, should also be taught.



— Ronald Reagan



Responding to a question, during his 1980 Presidential Campaign, whether he agreed with the teaching of evolution in schools. Quoted in New Scientist (9 Oct 1980), 136.



[A woman waiting for him in the Kremlin asked Gobachev] Was communism invented by a politician or a scientist? [He replied] Well, a politician. She said, That explains it. The scientist would have tried it on mice first.



— Ronald Reagan



A story concluding his 'Remarks to Jewish Leaders During a White House Briefing on United States Assistance for the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance', (5 Mar 1986). He said was told in the Communist countries among themselves, which reveals the cynicism of their own people, and it was brought to him by George Shultz returning from the Soviet Union. Collected in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1986 (1988), 297. He repeated this joke during 'Remarks to Elected Officials During a White House Briefing on United States Assistance for the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance' (14 Mar 1986), ibid. 340.



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