Calvin Coolidge Quotes & Sayings

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

I think the Senate ought to realize that I have to have about me those in whom I have confidence; and unless they find a real blemish on a man, I do not think they ought to make partisan politics out of appointments to the Cabinet. — Calvin Coolidge

If there is to be responsible party government, the party label must be something more than a mere device for securing office. Unless those who are elected under the same party designation are willing to assume sufficient responsibility and exhibit sufficient loyalty and coherence, so that they can cooperate with each other in the support of the broad general principles, of the party platform, the election is merely a mockery, no decision is made at the polls, and there is no representation of the popular will. — Calvin Coolidge

A lost article invariably shows up after you replace it. — 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

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

What we need in appointive positions is men of knowledge and experience who have sufficient character to resist temptations. — Calvin Coolidge

What America needs is to hold to its ancient and well-charted course. Our country was conceived in the theory of local self-government. It has been dedicated by long practice to that wise and beneficent policy. It is the foundation principle of our system of liberty. It makes the largest promise to the freedom and development of the individual. Its preservation is worth all the effort and all the sacrifice that it may cost. — Calvin Coolidge

The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization. — Calvin Coolidge

A government must govern, must prescribe and enforce laws within its sphere or cease to be a government. Moreover, the individual must be independent and free within his own sphere or cease to be an individual. The fundamental question ... is now, and always will be through what adjustments, by what actions, these principles may be applied. — Calvin Coolidge

It is our theory that the people own the government, not that the government should own the people. — Calvin Coolidge

The centralization of power in Washington, which nearly all members of Congress deplore in their speech and then support by their votes, steadily increases. — Calvin Coolidge

Theodore Roosevelt was always getting himself in hot water by talking before he had to commit himself upon issues not well-defined. — 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

When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous. — 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

Public debt [is] a burden on all the people. — Calvin Coolidge

At first I intended to become a student of the Senate rules and I did learn much about them, but I soon found that the Senate hadbut one fixed rule, subject to exceptions of course, which was to the effect that the Senate would do anything it wanted to do whenever it wanted to do it. — Calvin Coolidge

I always enjoy animal acts. — Calvin Coolidge

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

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. — Calvin Coolidge

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

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

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

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. — 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

Whenever I indulge my sense of humor, it gets me into trouble. — 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

Works which endure come from the soul of the people. The mighty in their pride walk alone to destruction. The humble walk hand in hand with providence to immortality. Their works survive. — Calvin Coolidge

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. — 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

It is not easy to conceive of anything that would be more unfortunate in a community based upon the ideals of which Americans boast than any considerable development of intolerance as regards religion. — Calvin Coolidge

Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service. — Calvin Coolidge

The words of the President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately. — 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

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

As I went about with my father, when he collected taxes, I knew that when taxes were laid someone had to work hard to earn the money to pay them. — Calvin Coolidge

Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. — 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 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. — Calvin Coolidge

If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure 9 will go in the ditch and you have only one to battle with. — Calvin Coolidge

I should think that an ordinary copy of the King James version would have been good enough for those Congressmen. — Calvin Coolidge

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

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. — Calvin Coolidge

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation. — Calvin Coolidge

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing. — 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

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

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

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

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. — Calvin Coolidge

Under our institutions the only way to perfect the Government is to perfect the individual citizen. It is necessary to reach the mind and soul of the individual. I know of no way that this can be done save through the influence of religion and education. By religion I do not mean fanaticism or bigotry; by education I do not mean the cant of the schools, but a broad and tolerant faith, loving thy neighbor as thyself, and a training and experience that enables the human mind to see into the heart of things. — 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

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

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

The business of the country is business. — Calvin Coolidge

We have found that when men and women are left free to find the places for which they are best fitted, some few of them will indeed attain less exalted stations than under a regime of privilege; but the vast multitude will rise to a higher level, to wider horizons, to worthier attainments. — Calvin Coolidge

Because of what America is and what America has done, a firmer courage, a higher hope, inspires the heart of all humanity. — Calvin Coolidge

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

The Jews themselves, of whom a considerable number were already scattered throughout the colonies, were true to the teachings of their prophets. The Jewish faith is predominantly the faith of liberty. — Calvin Coolidge

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

No person was ever honored for what he recieved. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. — Calvin Coolidge

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

Government price-fixing once started, has alike no justice and no end. It is an economic folly from which this country has every right to be spared. — Calvin Coolidge

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

Economy is idealism in its most practical form. — Calvin Coolidge

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. — Calvin Coolidge

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. — Calvin Coolidge

I think the American public wants a solemn ass as a president, and I think I'll go along with them. — Calvin Coolidge

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

Anytime you don't want anything you get it. — Calvin Coolidge

Despotism has forever had a powerful hold upon the world. Autocratic government, not self-government, has been the prevailing state of mankind. The record of past history is the record, not of the success of republics, but of their failure. — Calvin Coolidge

A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government ... — Calvin Coolidge

Inflation is repudiation. — 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

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

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

The measure discriminates definitely against products which make up what has been universally considered a program of safe farming. The bill upholds as ideals of American farming the men who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine, tobacco, or wheat and nothing else. These are to be given special favors at the expense of the farmer who has toiled for years to build up a constructive farming enterprise to include a variety of crops and livestock. — Calvin Coolidge

Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation. — Calvin Coolidge

One with the law is a majority. — Calvin Coolidge

Business will be either better or worse. — Calvin Coolidge

Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny. — Calvin Coolidge

Prosperity cannot be divorced from humanity. — Calvin Coolidge

The prohibition amendment to the Constitution requires the Congress. and the President to provide adequate laws to prevent its violation. It is my duty to enforce such laws.To prevent smuggling, the Coast Card should be greatly strengthened, and a supply of swift power boats should be provided. The major sources of production should be rigidly regulated, and every effort should be made to suppress interstate traffic ... It is the duty of a citizen not only to observe the law but to let it be known that he is opposed to its violation. — Calvin Coolidge

I do not want to see any of the people cringing supplicants for the favor of the Government, when they should all be independent masters of their own destiny. — Calvin Coolidge

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

I have done it [appointed commissions] regretfully and with the hope that it would be temporary. But after a commission is established you find it always wants to enlarge itself, employ more people, is very busy with Senators and Congressmen to impress upon them the great value of the services of the commission, and even when I talk to people that I appoint to commissions and tell them I would like them to go on to various boards with the idea that they may be abolished, they say they ought to be abolished, but when they have taken their position they very soon seem to change their mind. — Calvin Coolidge

Under the attempt to perform the impossible there sets in a general disintegration. When legislation fails, those who look upon it as a sovereign remedy simply cry out for more legislation.
A sound and wise statesmanship which recognizes and attempts to abide by its limitations will undoubtedly find itself displaced by that type of public official who promises much, talks much, legislates much, expends much, but accomplishes little.
The deliberate, sound judgement of the country is likely to find it has been superseded by a popular whim. — Calvin Coolidge

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

I always figured the American public wanted a solemn ass for president, so I went along with them. — Calvin Coolidge

Nature is inexorable. If men do not follow the truth they cannot live. — Calvin Coolidge

Good government cannot be found on the bargain-counter. We have seen samples of bargain-counter government in the past when low tax rates were secured by increasing the bonded debt for current expenses or refusing to keep our institutions up to the standard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and accommodations. I refuse, and the Republican Party refuses, to endorse that method of sham and shoddy economy. — Calvin Coolidge

Life is one darn thing after another. — Calvin Coolidge

There is no surer road to destruction than prosperity without character. — 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

The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country. — 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