Calvin Coolidge Quotes

Of course our school life was not free from pranks. The property of the townspeople was moved to strange places in the night. One morning as the janitor was starting the furnace he heard a loud bray from one of the class rooms. His investigation disclosed the presence there of a domestic animal noted for his long ears and discordant voice. In some way during the night he had been stabled on the second floor. About as far as I deem it prudent to discuss my own connection with these escapades is to record that I was never convicted of any of them and so must be presumed innocent. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws. ~ Calvin Coolidge

But this does not detract from the wisdom of his faith in the people and his constant insistence that they be left to manage their own affairs. His opposition to bureaucracy will bear careful analysis, and the country could stand a great deal more of its application. The trouble with us is that we talk about Jefferson but do not follow him. In his theory that the people should manage their government, and not be managed by it, he was everlastingly right. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty. ~ Calvin Coolidge

We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Can those entrusted with the gravest authority set any example save that of the sternest obedience to the law? ~ Calvin Coolidge

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. ~ Calvin Coolidge

I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.
Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The property of the people belongs to the people. To take it from them by taxation cannot be justified except by urgent public necessity. Unless this principle be recognized our country is no longer secure, our people no longer free. ~ Calvin Coolidge

She was practically an invalid ever after I could remember her, but used what strength she had in lavish care upon me and my sister, who was three years younger. There was a touch of mysticism and poetry in her nature which made her love to gaze at the purple sunsets and watch the evening stars. Whatever was grand and beautiful in form and color attracted her. It seemed as though the rich green tints of the foliage and the blossoms of the flowers came for her in the springtime, and in the autumn it was for her that the mountain sides were struck with crimson and with gold. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Why don't we just buy one airplane and let the pilots take turns flying it. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Advertising is the life of trade. ~ Calvin Coolidge

After Harding's death, the taciturn vice president, Calvin Coolidge, moved into the White House. In contrast to his predecessor's political cronyism and outgoing style, Coolidge personified austere rectitude. As vice president "Silent Cal" often sat through official functions without uttering a word. A dinner partner once challenged him by saying, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a rather sizable bet with my friends that I can get you to speak three words this evening." Responded Coolidge icily, "You lose. ~ James A. Henretta

The business of America is business. ~ Calvin Coolidge

A wholesome regard for the memory of the great men of long ago is the best assurance to a people of a continuation of great men to come, who shall be able to instruct, to lead, and to inspire. A people who worship at the shrine of true greatness will themselves be truly great. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Industry cannot flourish if labor languish. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. ~ Calvin Coolidge

After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Unless we lay our course in accordance with this principle, the great power for good in the world with which we have been intrusted by a Divine Providence will be turned to a power for evil. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Eat it up, make it do, wear it out. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still. ~ Calvin Coolidge

No method of procedure has ever been devised by which liberty could be divorced from local self-government. No plan of centralization has ever been adopted which did not result in bureaucracy, tyranny, inflexibility, reaction, and decline. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential. ~ Calvin Coolidge

No matter what anyone may say about making the rich and the corporations pay taxes, in the end they come out of the people who toil ~ Calvin Coolidge

It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man. ~ Calvin Coolidge

When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results. ~ Calvin Coolidge

We do not need to import any foreign economic ideas or any foreign government. We had better stick to the American brand of government, the American brand of equality, and the American brand of wages. America had better stay American ~ Calvin Coolidge

No Congress of the United States ever assembled, on surveying the state of the Union, has met with a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time. In the domestic field there is tranquillity and contentment, harmonious relations between management and wage earner, freedom from industrial strife, and the highest record of years of prosperity. ~ Calvin Coolidge

She hasn't been back since, and we have a young per diem substitute who had taught shoes in a vocational high school on her last job. Though her license is English, she had been called to the Shoe Department, where she traced the history of shoes from Cinderella and Puss in Boots through Galsworthy and modern advertising. "Best shoe lesson they ever had," she told me cheerfully. "Until a cop came in, dangling handcuffs: 'Lady, that kid I gotta have.'" To her, Calvin Coolidge is Paradise. ~ Bel Kaufman

To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.
Presidential message, December 25, 1927 ~ Calvin Coolidge

While I do not think it was so intended I have always been of the opinion that this turned out to be much the best for me. I had no national experience. What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems. The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage. ~ Calvin Coolidge

You don't have to explain something you never said. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Not long ago I heard a Navy chaplain refer to the sage advice of the Apostle to put first things first ... If we are to heed the admonition to put first things first ... one of the main essentials which lies at the very beginning of civilization is that of security. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of the regeneration and redemption of mankind. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Civilization and profit go hand in hand. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American. ~ Calvin Coolidge

A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of the law for the virtues of men ~ Calvin Coolidge

We are too solicitous for government intervention, on the theory, first, that the people themselves are helpless, and second, that the Government has superior capacity for action. Often times both of these conclusions are wrong. ~ Calvin Coolidge

News is like the tilefish which appears in great schools off the Atlantic Coast some years and then vanishes, no one knows whither or for how long. Newspapers might employ these periods searching for the breeding grounds of news, but they prefer to fill up with stories about Kurdled Kurds or Calvin Coolidge, until the banks close or a Hitler marches, when they are as surprised as their readers. ~ A.J. Liebling

That man has offered me unsolicited advice for six years, most of it bad. ~ Calvin Coolidge

After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world. I am strongly of the opinion that the great majority of people will always find these are the moving impulses of our life. But it is only those who do not understand our people, who believe that our national life is entirely absorbed by material motives. We make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things that we want much more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong an element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. ~ Calvin Coolidge

It has been my observation in life that, if one will only exercise the patience to wait, his wants are likely to be filled. ~ Calvin Coolidge

We live an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create the Declaration. Our Declaration created them ... If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. ~ Calvin Coolidge

You have to stand every day three or four hours of visitors. Nine-tenths of them want something they ought not to have. If you keep dead-still they will run down in three or four minutes. If you even cough or smile they will start up all over again. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Chapter 95
Fairfield, Connecticut – May 8, 2015

"No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war. ~ Calvin Coolidge

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Never go out to meet trouble. If you just sit still, nine cases out of ten, someone will intercept it before it reaches you. ~ Calvin Coolidge

They [the Founding Fathers] were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness ... Who can fail to see it in the hand of Destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence? ~ Calvin Coolidge

There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The things I never say never get me into trouble. ~ Calvin Coolidge

If you can get enough votes so that mine will make a majority, you can have it. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Teaching is one of the noblest of professions. It requires an adequate preparation and training, patience, devotion, and a deep sense of responsibility. Those who mold the human mind have wrought not for time, but for eternity. ~ Calvin Coolidge

We cannot permit any inquisition either within or without the law or apply any religious test to the holding of office. The mind of America must be forever free. ~ Calvin Coolidge

I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Measured by the standards of men of their time, [the Pilgrims] were the humble of the earth. Measured by later accomplishments, they were the mighty. In appearance weak and persecuted they came
rejected, despised
an insignificant band; in reality strong and independent, a mighty host of whom the world was not worthy destined to free mankind. ~ Calvin Coolidge

In January 1924, as a sweeping immigration measure awaited presidential signature, American Jewish Committee leader Louis Marshall asked to meet with President Calvin Coolidge to urge a veto. Coolidge refused to see him. The president's views were summed up in an article he had written a few years earlier in Good Housekeeping magazine, titled "Whose Country Is This?" "[B]iological laws show us that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races," Coolidge wrote. ~ J.J. Goldberg

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement. ~ Calvin Coolidge

If the Government gets into business on any large scale, we soon find that the beneficiaries attempt to play a large part in the control. While in theory it is to serve the public, in practice it will be very largely serving private interests. It comes to be regarded as a species of government favor and those who are the most adroit get the larger part of it. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The duties which a police officer owes to the state are of a most exacting nature. No one is compelled to choose the profession ofa police officer, but having chosen it, everyone is obliged to live up to the standard of its requirements. To join in that high enterprise means the surrender of much individual freedom. ~ Calvin Coolidge

It is accordance with our determination to refrain from aggression and build up a sentiment and practice among nations more favorable to peacethat we have incurred the consent of fourteen important nations to the negotiation of a treaty condemning recourse to war, renouncing it as an instrument of national policy. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Our doctrine of equality and liberty and humanity comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man, through the fatherhood of God. ~ Calvin Coolidge

What we need is not more Federal government, but better local government. ~ Calvin Coolidge

America has but one main problem
the character of the men and women it shall produce. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The suggestion of denying any measure of their full political rights to such a great group of our population as the colored peopleis one which, however it might be received in some other quarters, could not possibly be permitted by one who feels a responsibility for living up to the traditions and maintaining the principles of the Republican Party. Our Constitution guarantees equal rights to all of our citizens, without discrimination on account of race or color. I have taken my oath to support that Constitution. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The country is not in good condition. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Extraordinary - that Willowdale Academy and Calvin Coolidge High School should both be institutions of learning! The contrast is stunning. I had a leisurely tea with the Chairman of the English Department. I saw several faculty members sitting around in offices and lounges, sipping tea, reading, smoking. Through the large casement windows bare trees rubbed cozy branches. (One of my students had written wistfully of a dream-school that would have "windows with trees in them"!) Old leather chairs, book-lined walls, air of cultivated casualness, sound of well-bred laughter. ~ Bel Kaufman

Honorable Senators: My sincerest thanks I offer you. Conserve the firm foundations of our institutions. Do your work with the spirit of a soldier in the public service. Be loyal to the Commonwealth and to yourselves and be brief; above all be brief. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one. ~ Calvin Coolidge

What the end of the carnage of World War II meant to those who remember it, can never be forgotten, but to all those who don't, its meaning can never be fully understood! ~ Calvin Coolidge

Parties do not maintain themselves. They are maintained by effort. The government is not self-existent. It is maintained by the effort of those who believe in it. The people of America believe in American institutions, the American form of government and the American method of transacting business. ~ Calvin Coolidge

This is as good a time as any to comment on what I think has grown into an abuse. Congress makes holidays and every time there isa holiday it is the practice for one department to telephone over to another department and say we are going to have an extra holiday in this department and what is your department going to do about it ... If it comes on Saturday, they want a holiday on Friday, and of course they couldn't come back and travel on Sunday and so they want another holiday on Monday to get back on. ~ Calvin Coolidge

I always enjoy animal acts. ~ Calvin Coolidge

We need not concern ourselves much about rights of property if we faithfully observe the rights of persons. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The world is full of educated derelicts ~ Calvin Coolidge

One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest for a little girl to come along, carrying a basket of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come a long and she was carrying a basket of food. "Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother? asked the wolf. The little girl said yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the wood.
When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she saw that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.
Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be. ~ James Thurber

I want taxes to be less, that the people may have more. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The fundamental precept of liberty is toleration. ~ Calvin Coolidge

History reveals no civilized people among whom there was not a highly educated class and large aggregations of wealth. Large profits mean large payrolls. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion. ~ Calvin Coolidge

We have too much legislating by clamor, by tumult, by pressure. Representative government ceases when outside influence of any kind is substituted for the judgment of the representative. ~ Calvin Coolidge

No man ever listened himself out of a job. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The two great political parties of the nation have existed for the purpose, each in accordance with its own principles, of undertaking to serve the interests of the whole nation. Their members of the Congress are chosen with that great end in view. ~ Calvin Coolidge

The good people of Dakota offered to give Calvin Coolidge a farm if he would live on it. I wouldn't advise you to give those people too much credit for generosity. There is not a farmer in any State in the West that wouldn't be glad to give him a farm if he will paint it, fix up the fences and keep up the series of mortgages that are on it. And if you think Coolidge ain't smart, you just watch him not take it. ~ Will Rogers

War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law. ~ Calvin Coolidge

If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it. ~ Calvin Coolidge

You can't know too much, but you can say too much. ~ Calvin Coolidge

It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother. I cannot describe mine. ~ Calvin Coolidge

To place your name by gift or bequest in the keeping of an active educational institution is to ... make a permanent contribution to the welfare of humanity. ~ Calvin Coolidge

There's more, much more, to Christmas Than candlelight and cheer; It's the spirit of sweet friendship That brightens all year. It's thoughtfulness and kindness, It's hope reborn again, For peace, for understanding, And for goodwill to men! ~ Calvin Coolidge

It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. ~ Calvin Coolidge

What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. ~ Calvin Coolidge

In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience of the law. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Governments are necessarily continuing concerns. They have to keep going in good times and in bad. They therefore need a wide margin of safety. If taxes and debt are made all the people can bear when times are good, there will be certain disaster when times are bad. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing. ~ Calvin Coolidge