Calvin Coolidge Quotations

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

There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.

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.

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.

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

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

I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.

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.

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

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.

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

Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.

We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.

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.

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.

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.

I have never been hurt by what I have not said.

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

Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.

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

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

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

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

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.

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.

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

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

When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.

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

Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.

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

No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.

When large numbers of men are unable to find work unemployment results

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.

No man ever listened himself out of a job.

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.

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.

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.

You know, I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me.

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

When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.

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

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

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

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.

One of the first things a President learns is that everything he says weighs a ton

No one every listened themselves out of a job.

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 alone are omnipotent.

Nothing is easier than the expenditure of public money. It doesn't appear to belong to anyone. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.

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

I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say

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

Some people are suffering from lack of work, some from lack of water, many more from lack of wisdom.

I suppose I am the most powerful man in the world, but great power doesn't mean much except great limitations

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

The danger to America is not in the direction of the failure to maintain its economic position, but in the direction of the failure to maintain its ideals.

Money will not purchase character or good government.

Our country represents nothing but peaceful intentions toward all the earth, but it ought not to fail to maintain such a military force as comports with the dignity and security of a great people.

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.

Inflation is repudiation.

Civilisation and profits go hand in hand.

Our domestic problems are for the most part economic. We have our enormous debt to pay, and we are paying it. We have the high cost of government to diminish, and we are diminishing it. We have a heavy burden of taxation to reduce, and we are reducing it. But while remarkable progress has been made in these directions, the work is yet far from accomplished.

There is no substitute for a militant freedom.

Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest.

I did not see the sense in chasing a little white ball around a field.

I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government, and more for themselves

The Constitution is the sole source and guaranty of national freedom.

The door of opportunity swings wide open in our country. Through it, in constant flow, go those who toil. America recognizes no aristocracy save those who work. The badge of service is the sole requirement for admission to the ranks of our nobility.

If the people fail to vote, a government will be developed which is not their government... The whole system of American Government rests on the ballot box. Unless citizens perform their duties there, such a system of government is doomed to failure.

Education should be the handmaid of citizenship.

You can't increase prosperity by taxing success.

Life is one darn thing after another.

I cannot think of anything characteristically American that was not produced by toil. I cannot think of any American man or woman preeminent in the history of our nation who did not reach their place through toil. I cannot think of anything that represents the American people as a whole so adequately as honest work.

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.

There is no escaping the fact that when the taxation of large incomes is excessive, they tend to disappear.

It is not in violence and crime that our greatest danger lies. These evils are so perfectly apparent that they very quickly arouse the moral power of the people for their suppression. A far more serious danger lurks in the shirking of those responsibilities of citizenship, where the evil may not be so noticeable but is more insidious and likely to be more devastating.

Those who want their rights respected under the Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of observing the Constitution and the law. While there may be those of high intelligence who violate the law at times, the barbarian and the defective always violate it. Those who disregard the rules of society are not exhibiting a superior intelligence, are not promoting freedom and independence, are not following the path of civilization, but are displaying the traits of ignorance, of servitude, of savagery, and treading the way that leads back to the jungle.

We insist on producing a farm surplus, but think the government should find a profitable market for it. We overindulge in speculation, but ask the government to prevent panics. Now the only way to hold the government entirely responsible for conditions is to give up our liberty for a dictatorship. If we continue the more reasonable practice of managing our own affairs we must bear the burdens of our own mistakes. A free people cannot shift their responsibility for them to the government. Self-government means self-reliance.

Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create.

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.

In life there is nothing more common than talent and intelligence. What is missing is passion, persistence, commitment, and dedication.

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

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

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.

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 save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.

We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development. 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. It is on that side of life that it is desirable to put the emphasis at the present time. If that side be strengthened, the other side will take care of itself.

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.

We want wealth, but there are many other things we want very much more. Among them are peace, honor, charity, and idealism.

Character is the only secure foundation of the state.

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.