Reagan was telling jokes soon after being shot

The former US president Ronald Reagan was sometimes known by his soubriquet the Great Communicator.

Over his career he was renowned for telling jokes, summing up issues with memorable lines, and making the odd gaffe.

Here is a selection of his quotes:

Government is not the solution, it's the problem.
Inaugural address, 20 January, 1981

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.
1986

A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist.
1988

Honey, I forgot to duck.
To wife Nancy Reagan in the emergency room after being shot, 30 March, 1981

I hope you're all Republicans.
To surgeons as he went into the operating theatre

When you see all that rhetorical smoke billowing up from the Democrats, well, ladies and gentlemen, I'd follow the example of their nominee: don't inhale.
A reference to Bill Clinton at the Republican National Convention, 1992

My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
A joke, not realising a microphone was on, 1984

If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalisation, come here to this gate ... open this gate ... tear down this wall.
At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, addressing a speech to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, June 1987

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.
On the 40th anniversary of the Normandy landings, 6 June, 1984

She's the best man in England.
On former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher

If I ache, it's because we are apart and yet that can't be because you are inside and a part of me, so we really aren't apart at all. Yet I ache but wouldn't be without the ache, because that would mean being without you and that I can't be because I love you.
A letter to Nancy in 1963, quoted in her 2000 book I Love You, Ronnie

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.
Announcing his Alzheimer's disease, 5 November, 1994

(Agencies)