WHEN CHARACTER WAS KING

"We live in a world shaped in so many ways by his will and heart. As president, Ronald Reagan believed without question that tyranny is temporary, and the hope of freedom is universal and permanent; that our nation has unique goodness, and must remain uniquely strong; that God takes the side of justice, because all our rights are His own gifts..."

"And now, having gone on to other wars and seen our country in other struggles, having lived more years, known more life and seen more things, having come to understand what the meaning of those old days was...well, old resentments and rivalries fell away, disappeared, and what was left was: us. And the meaning of what we'd shared.

We'd been in a war, and we had a leader."

"[Ronald Reagan's mother] believed completely in what was known as, in the title of a popular book of the era, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life. This was the secret: Jesus is with you, is aware of your life and fully engaged in it; God is in everything; He will let little befall you that will not be to the ultimate benefit of your soul. Sometimes He steps aside for trouble coming your way but only if it will refine you or prepare you to be with Him someday in heaven, where you'll know a happiness beyond all human understanding. So there is no cause then for sadness, only for joy. 'Do not be afraid.'"

— Peggy Noonan, When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan (2001)