One Secret of “The Great Communicator”
One appropriate nickname for President Ronald Reagan is “The Great Communicator.” He gave his first speech at Eureka College during his freshman year. When the college president announced cuts in classes, lay-offs for professors, and other money-saving efforts, Ronald Reagan’s classmates chose him to make a speech in protest. His speech was successful.
Reagan later said,
“Giving that speech — my first — was as exciting as any I ever gave. For the first time in my life I felt my words reach out and grab and audience, and it was exhilarating.”
After careers, first in radio and then in the movies, Reagan began working in television. For eight years, he hosted General Electric Theater and starred in several episodes. The show became very popular with television audiences.
Besides hosting General Electric Theater, the job required Reagan to travel around the country as a goodwill ambassador for General Electric. Reagan traveled to 139 factories in 39 states.
This experience gave him contact with citizens across America, helping him learn what was important to them. Reagan said:
“No barnstorming politician ever met the people on quite such a common footing.”
The role of goodwill ambassador also gave Reagan the opportunity to become an excellent speaker. Reagan began collecting and organizing quotes — profound ones and funny ones — that might be useful in writing speeches. He wrote the sayings by hand on index cards and stored them in the album below. Sayings from people as diverse as Greek playwright Aristophanes, Roman philosopher Cicero, Mahatma Gandhi of India, and second President of the United States John Adams made it onto Reagan’s cards. Reagan’s album is on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Reagan wrapped some of his favorite quotes in a rubber band and threw them into his brief case. Notice the collection of cards on the black notebook in the photo below.
These are a few samples of quotes Ronald Reagan included in his collection:
- When coming to the parting of the ways, try to go both.
- A compliment may be blunt, but criticism calls for courtesy.
- Beware of those who fall at your feet. They may be reaching for the corner of the rug.
- Today’s kids are studying in history what we studied in current events.
- With metric conversion upon us, one thing I’d like to be sure of: are 28.349 grams of prevention worth .453 kilograms of cure?
President Ronald Reagan understood — and used — the power of words.
Like apples of gold in settings of silver
Is a word spoken in right circumstances.
Proverbs 25:11
Psalm 19 includes a prayer for our words and the meditations of our hearts. I memorized it in public grade school.
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
Jesus taught that when those meditations are right, our words will be, too.
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart
brings forth what is good;
and the evil man out of the evil treasure
brings forth what is evil;
for his mouth speaks
from that which fills his heart.
Luke 6:45