"Ronald Reagan believed that everything happens for a reason and that we should strive to know and do the will of God. He believed that the gentleman always does the kindest thing. He believed that people were basically good and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things a person could be guilty of."
"He believed in the golden rule and in the power of prayer. He believed that America was not just a place in the world, but the hope of the world. And he believed in taking a break now and then, because, as we said, there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse."
"Ronald Reagan’s moment arrived in 1980. He came out ahead of some very good men, including one from Plains and one from Houston. What followed was one of the decisive decades of the century as the convictions that shaped the president began to shape the times.”
Former President George H.W. Bush
"He was beloved, first, because of what he was. Politics can be cruel, uncivil. Our friend was strong and gentle.
"Once he called America hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent and fair. That was America and, yes, our friend."
“I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life. I learned kindness; we all did. I also learned courage; the nation did.
"The good book says humility goes before honor, and our friend had both, and who could not cherish such a man?"
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
“In his lifetime, Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America’s wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world and to free the slaves of communism.”
Ronald Prescott Reagan
"Ron Regan. He is home now. He is free. In his final letter to the American people Dad wrote: I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life.
This evening he has arrived.
History will record his worth as a leader. We here have long sense measured his worth as a man. Honest, compassionate, graceful, brave. He was the most plainly decent man you could ever hope to meet.
He used to say a gentleman always does the kind thing. And he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word - a gentle man.
Big as he was, he never tried to make anyone feel small. Powerful as he became, he never took advantage of those who were weaker. Strength he believed was never more admirable than when it was applied with restraint."
"Those of us who knew him well will have no trouble imagining his paradise. Golden fields will spread beneath the blue dome of a western sky. Live oaks will shadow the rolling hillsides. And someplace, flowing from years long past, a river will wind towards the sea. Across those fields he will ride a gray mare he calls Nancy D. They will sail over jumps he has built with his own hands. He will let the river carry him over the shining stones. He will rest in the shade of the trees.
Our cares are no longer his. We meet him now only in memory. But we will join him soon enough - all of us - when we are home, when we are free."
