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It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.

Ronald Reagan#61

PolicyCourageHopeDreamsNationalismRenewal

About this quote

What does it mean?
Reagan argues that national decline is not inevitable and calls for a renewal of courage, faith, and heroic dreams.
In plain terms
We should not accept decline but instead renew our hope and pursue big dreams.
What can you take from it?
National strength depends on active effort and believing in heroic possibilities.

Where it applies

  • political speeches
  • national crises
  • campaign rallies

Putting it to work

  • motivate teams
  • reassure citizens
  • frame policy goals

Questions to consider

  • What counts as a heroic dream today?
  • How do we renew faith in institutions?

Another view

It assumes collective will is enough to overcome structural economic or social problems.

More from Ronald Reagan

  1. 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 …

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  2. Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It i…

    Permalink to quote #62
  3. There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.

    Permalink to quote #59

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