Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Reagan suggests that understanding communist ideology is key to opposing it.
In plain terms
To fight communism, you need to understand Marx and Lenin.
What can you take from it?
Know your opponent to defeat them.

Where it applies

  • political education
  • debates
  • activism

Putting it to work

  • Study opposing ideologies
  • Educate on political history

Questions to consider

  • How does knowledge help in conflict?
  • What else is needed to oppose an ideology?

Another view

Understanding does not guarantee effectiveness.

More from Ronald Reagan

  1. Diplomacy, of course, is a subtle and nuanced craft, so much so that it's said that when the most wily diplomat of the nineteenth-century passed away, other di…

    Permalink to quote #92
  2. Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuous revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding th…

    Permalink to quote #94
  3. Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unit…

    Permalink to quote #91

Related quotes

  1. If I do not know everything, then I would say that you know nothing about communism; nothing except fear of it.

    Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev quote #32
  2. If I had been an Italian, I am sure I would have been entirely with you from the beginning to the end of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites…

    Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill quote #1
  3. I am naturally anti-Russian just as most Germans are. I admire their achievements in industrial fields. I was in Moscow personally. I would not be in favor of …

    Paul SchmidtPaul Schmidt quote #2