RONALD REAGAN
"The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it."
"Government is the people's business and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid."
"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions."
"They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right."
"There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."
"For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny."
"Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty."
MARGARET THATCHER
"There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty."
"If your only opportunity is to be equal then it is not opportunity."
"Popular capitalism is on the march ... Of course, there will always be people who, in the name of morality, sneer at this and call it 'materialism'. But isn't it moral that people should want to improve the material standard of living of their families, by their own effort? Isn't it moral that families should work for the means to look after their old folk? Isn't it moral that people should save, so as to be responsible for themselves? ... And it is for Government to work with that grain in human nature to strengthen the strand of responsibility and independence: it benefits the family; it benefits the children; it is the essence of freedom."
"Let our children grow tall and some taller than others if they have it in them to do so."
"When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help."
"When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality - other than equality before the law - that government poses a threat to liberty."
"Let me give you my vision: A man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master. These are the British inheritance. They are the essence of a free country, and on that freedom all of our other freedoms depend."
"We want a society in which we are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. That is what we mean by a moral society - not a society in which the State is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the State."
