Calvin Coolidge Quotes

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”― Calvin Coolidge

“No person was ever honored for what he recieved. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
― 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

“Don’t you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?”― Calvin Coolidge

“They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.”― Calvin Coolidge

“This country would not be a land of opportunity, America could not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies.”― Calvin Coolidge

“When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.”― Calvin Coolidge

“The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support.”― Calvin Coolidge

“I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can’t be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.”― 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

“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”― Calvin Coolidge

“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

“The collection of taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Wherever we look, the work of the chemist has raised the level of our civilization and has increased the productive capacity of our nation.”― 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

“Ever since I was in Amherst College I have remembered how Garman told his class in philosophy that if they would go along with events and have the courage and industry to hold to the main stream, without being washed ashore by the immaterial cross currents, they would someday be men of power. He meant that we should try to guide ourselves by general principles and not get lost in particulars. That may sound like mysticism, but it is only the mysticism that envelopes every great truth. One of the greatest mysteries in the world is the success that lies in conscientious work.”― Calvin Coolidge

“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.”
― Calvin Coolidge

“Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Fate bestows its rewards on those who put themselves in the proper attitude to receive them.”
― Calvin Coolidge

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.-Calvin Coolidge

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.― Calvin Coolidge

“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

“If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you”― Calvin Coolidge

“The college of that day had a very laudable desire to get students, and having admitted them, it was equally alert in striving to keep them and help them get an education, with the result that very few left of their own volition and almost none were dropped for failure in their work. There was no marked exodus at the first examination period, which was due not only to the attitude of the college but to the attitude of the students, who did not go there because they wished to experiment for a few months with college life and be able to say thereafter they had been in college, but went because they felt they had need of an education, and expected to work hard for that purpose until the course was finished. There were few triflers.”― Calvin Coolidge

“It is a very old saying that you never can tell what you can do until you try. The more I see of life the more I am convinced of the wisdom of that observation.”― Calvin Coolidge

“The words of the President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately. It would be exceedingly easy to set the country all by the ears and foment hatreds and jealousies, which, by destroying faith and confidence, would help nobody and harm everybody. The end would be the destruction of all progress.”
― 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

“The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Any reward that is worth having only comes to the industrious. The success which is made in any walk of life is measured almost exactly by the amout of hard work that is put into it.”― 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. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”― Calvin Coolidge

“If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.”― Calvin Coolidge

“It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.”― Calvin Coolidge

“The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.”― Calvin Coolidge

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

“There is only one form of political strategy in which I have any confidence, and that is to try to do the right thing and sometimes be able to succeed.”― Calvin Coolidge

“We do not need more intellectual power; we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge; we need more character. We do not need more government; we need more culture. We do not need more law; we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen; we need more of the things that are unseen”― Calvin Coolidge

“Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It does not denial of the divine right of kings; it asserts the divine right of all men.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Well, they’re going to elect that Superman Hoover, and he’s going to have some trouble. He’s going to have to spend money, but it won’t be enough. Then the Democrats will come in. But they don’t know anything about money.
[To his Secret Service man, Edmund Starling]”― Calvin Coolidge

“Any man who has been placed in the White House cannot feel that it is the result of his own exertions or his own merit. Some power outside and beyond him becomes manifest through him. As he contemplates the workings of his office, he comes to realize with an increasing sense of humility that he is but an instrument in the hands of God.”― Calvin Coolidge

“It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.”― Calvin Coolidge

“The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good. The country is better off tranquilly considering its blessings and merits, and earnestly striving to secure more of them, than it would be in nursing hostile bitterness about its deficiencies and faults.”― Calvin Coolidge

“About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. 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. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”― Calvin Coolidge

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.__Calvin Coolidge

“Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.”__Calvin Coolidge

“When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.”__Calvin Coolidge

“The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.”__Calvin Coolidge

“Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America”__Calvin Coolidge

“In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.”__Calvin Coolidge

“While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish.”― Calvin Coolidge

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

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

“Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.”― Calvin Coolidge

“It is our theory that the people own the government, not that the government should own the people.”― Calvin Coolidge

“It takes a great man to be a good listener.”― Calvin Coolidge

“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”― Calvin Coolidge

“I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.”― Calvin Coolidge

“The nation which forgets it defenders will be itself forgotten.”― Calvin Coolidge

“The business of America is business. ”― Calvin Coolidge

“You don’t have to explain something you haven’t said.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.”― Calvin Coolidge

“I have never been hurt by what I have not said.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Who did this ”― Calvin Coolidge

“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”― Calvin Coolidge

No man ever listened himself out of a job.__Calvin Coolidge

“Advertising is the life of trade.”__Calvin Coolidge

“The world is full of educated derelicts”― Calvin Coolidge

“Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Economy is idealism in its most practical form.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Civilization and profits go hand in hand”― Calvin Coolidge

“If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.”― Calvin Coolidge

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

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”― Calvin Coolidge

“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”― Calvin Coolidge