Calvin Coolidge Quotes

Calvin Coolidge delivers plain-spoken, witty commentary on law, politics and human nature.

78 quotes

1. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.

2. There are racial considerations too grave to be brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides. Quality of mind and body suggests that observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation as immigration law.

3. The chief business of the American people is business.

4. 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.

5. I do not choose to run for President in 1928.

6. Nothing in the 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 are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

7. I feel I no longer fit in these times.

8. There is an obligation to forgive but it does not extend to the unrepentant. To give them aid and comfort is to support their evil doing and to become what is known in law as an accessory after the fact. A government which does that is a reproach to civilization and will soon have on its hands the blood of its citizens.

9. The conduct of public affairs is not a game. Responsible office does not go to the crafty. Governments are not founded upon an association for public plunder but on the cooperation of men wherein each is seeking to do his duty.

10. There are among us a great mass of people who have been reared for generations under a government of tyranny and oppression. It is ingrained in their blood that there is no other form of government. They are disposed and inclined to think our institutions partake of the same nature as these they have left behind. We know they are wrong. They must be shown they are wrong.

11. There is a just government. There are righteous laws. We know the formula by which they are produced. The principle is best stated in the immortal Declaration of Independence to be 'the consent of the governed'.

12. Good government cannot be bought, it has to be given. Office has great opportunities for doing wrong, but equal chance for doing right.

13. Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox, without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our eternal hills.

14. Government cannot relieve from toil. The normal must take care of themselves. Self-government means self-support: Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing: History reveals no civilized people among whom there was not a highly educated class and large aggregations of wealth. Large profits mean large payrolls.

15. '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 of the people of that day and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But, that reasoning cannot be applied to the great charter.

16. '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 a time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more 'modern,' but more ancient than those of our Revolutionary ancestors.

17. We live in an age of science and abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create the Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all of our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage bequeathed to us, we must be like minded as the Founders who created. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had and for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshipped.

18. Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

19. Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.

20. There is but a fixed quantity of wealth in this country at any fixed time. The only way that we can all secure more of it is to create more.

21. 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 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.

22. The fallacy of the claim that the costs of government are borne by the rich cannot be too often exposed. No system has been devised, I do not think any system could be devised, under which any person living in this country could escape being affected by the cost of our government. It has a direct effect both upon the rate and the purchasing power of wages. It is felt in the price of those prime necessities of existence, food, clothing, fuel and shelter:the continuing costs of public administration can be met in only one way - by the work of the people. The higher they become, the more the people must work for the government. The less they are, the more the people can work for themselves.

23. The method of raising revenue ought not to impede the transition of business; it ought to encourage it. I am opposed to extremely high rates, because they produce little or no revenue, because they are bad for the country, and, finally, because they are wrong. We cannot finance the country, we cannot improve social conditions, through any system of injustice, even if we attempt to influence it upon the rich: The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and in all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be successful.

24. Wealth is the product of industry, ambition, character and untiring effort. In all experience, the accumulation of wealth means the multiplication of schools, the increase of knowledge, the dissemination of intelligence, the encouragement of science, the broadening of outlook, the expansion of liberty, the widening of culture.

25. I can find no Constitutional authorization for this bill.

26. We have enough laws already, I don't need to sign any more.

27. There's no chance for job advancement.

28. If there has been any crime, it must be prosecuted. If there has been any property of the United States illegally transferred or leased, it must be recovered:. I propose to employ special counsel of high rank drawn from both political parties to bring such actions for the enforcement of the law. Counsel will be instructed to prosecute these cases in the courts so that if there is any guilt it will be punished; if there is any civil liability it will be enforced; if there is any fraud it will be revealed; and if there are any contracts which are illegal they will be canceled. Every law will be enforced. And every right of the people and the Government will be protected.

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

30. visiting lady at the White House: Mr. President, earlier this evening, I had made a bet that I can make you say more than two words. Coolidge: You lose.

31. They criticize me for harping on the obvious. Perhaps someday I'll write On the Importance of 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.

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

33. The Nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.

34. I am not conscious of having any particular style about my writings. If I have any, it is undoubtedly due to my training in the construction of legal papers, where it is necessary in the framing of a contract, or the drawing of a pleading, to say what you mean and mean what you say in terms sufficiently clear and concise so that your adversary will not be able to misinterpret them, or to divert the trial into a discussion of unimportant matters. The rule is to state the case with as little diffusion as possible.

35. Duty is not collective; it is personal.

36. A man must eat. (when asked why he attends functions if he doesn't like talking to anybody).

37. 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.

38. There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.

39. It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

40. Send the bill to the King of England. (said to a contractor replacing fire-damaged beams in the White House)

41. 45,000. I haven't caught all of them yet, but I've intimidated them. (when asked how many fish were in the river he fished)

42. There is no moral standard so high that the people cannot be raised up to it.

43. 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 succeed.

44. The people who start to elect a man to get what he can for his district will probably find they have elected a man who will get what he can for himself.

45. Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.

46. The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the practice of primitive peoples.

47. The normal must care for themselves.

48. They picked the Vice President for Harding, and they chose a durned fine man. (on whether he'd try to influence the nomination of vice presidential candidates)

49. I don't recall any candidate for President that ever injured himself very much by not talking.

50. The measure of success is not merchandise but character.

51. 'It is rather difficult for me to pick out one thing:The country has been at peace during that time. It hasn't had any marked commercial or financial depression:it has been a time of a fair degree of prosperity:there has been employment for everyone who wished employment:a time of marked peace in industry as between employer and employees:a large reduction in the national debt, considerable reduction in taxes.' ~ on his legacy

52. 'You lose.'

53. In response to a friends bet that he could get more than three words out of him.

54. Coolidge: Sins. Mrs. Coolidge: Well, what did he say about it? Coolidge: He was against it.

55. As president, Calvin Coolidge didn't do much of anything, but at the time, that's what we needed to have done.

56. [President Coolidge's] active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone: And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy:

57. How could they tell?

58. Isn't it past your bedtime, Calvin?

59. July 4, 1776 was the historic day on which the representatives of three millions of people vocalized Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the world that they proposed to establish an independent nation on the theory that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

60. 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.

61. The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.

62. 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.

63. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.

64. Nations are beginning to look to some vague organization, some nebulous course of humanity, to pay their bills and tell them what to do. This is not local self-government. It is not American. It is not the method which has made this country what it is. We can not maintain the western standard of civilization on that theory. If it is supported at all, it will have to be supported on the principle of individual responsibility.

65. The government can supply no substitute for enterprise.

66. One of the greatest dangers to peace lies in the economic pressure to which people find themselves subjected. One of the most practical things to be done in the world is to seek arrangements under which such pressure may be removed, so that opportunity may be renewed and hope may be revived.

67. War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law.

68. 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.

69. 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.

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

71. 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.

72. School is not the end but only the beginning of an education.

73. Well, farmers never have made money. I don't believe we can do much about it. But of course we will have to seem to be doing something; do the best we can and without much hope. The life of the farmer has its compensations but it has always been one of hardship.

74. Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.

75. Baseball is our national game.

76. Some of the offers that have come to me would never have come if I had not been President. That means these people are trying to hire not Calvin Coolidge, but a former President of the United States. I can't make that kind of use of the office… I can't do anything that might take away from the Presidency any of its dignity, or any of the faith people have in it.

77. It is all the more necessary under a system of free government that the people should be enlightened, that they should be correctly informed, than it is under an absolute government that they should be ignorant. Under a republic the institutions of learning, while bound by the constitution and laws, are in no way subservient to the government.

78. One of the greatest perils to an extensive republic is the disregard of individual rights.