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Seasonable Sayings of Calvin Coolidge

Compiled by Dick Eastman

In the 1920s, Calvin Coolidge met more frequently with reporters than has any other president. He also shook hands with long lines of White House tourists regularly.

The policy of our foreign relations, casting aside any suggestion of force, rests soley on the foundation of peace, good will, and good works.

--Calvin Coolidge

Our country has definitely relinquished the old standard of dealing with other countries by terror and force, and is definitely committed to the new standard of dealing with them through friendship and understanding. I believe this new policy holds a promise of great benefit to humanity. I am especially solicitous that foreign nations should comprehend the candor and sincerity with which we have adopted this position. I want the armed forces of America to be considered by all peoples not as enemies but as friends, as the contribution which is made by this country for the maintenance of the peace and security of the world.

--Calvin Coolidge

If good men don't hold office, bad men will.

--Calvin Coolidge

Whatever tends to standardize the community, to established fixed and rigid methods of thought, tends to fossilize society. It is the ferment of ideas, the clash of disagreeing judgements, the privilege of the individual to develop his own thoughts and shape his own character, that makes progress possible.

--Calvin Coolidge

Peace must have other guarantees than constitutions and covenants. There is another element, more important than all, without which there can not be the slightest hope of a permanent peace. That element lies in the heart of humanity. Unless the desire for peace be cherished there, unless this fundamental and only natural source of brotherly love be cultivated to its highest degree, all artificial efforts will be in vain. Peace will come when there is realization that only under a reign of law, based on righteousness and supported by the religious conviction of the brotherhood of man, can ther be any hope of a complete and satisfying life. Parchment will fail, the sword will fail, it is only the spiritual nature of man that can be triumphant.

--Calvin Coolidge

The final establishment of peace, the complete maintenance of good will toward men, will be found only in the righteousness of the people of the earth. Peace will reign when they will that it shall reign.

--Calvin Coolidge

The foreign policy of America can best be described by one word -- peace. A peace means fundamentally the reign of law.

--Calvin Coolidge

Our country was conceived in the theory of local self-government. It makes the largest promise to the freedom and development of the individual. It cannot be denied that the present tendency is not in harmony with this spirit. The individual, instead of working out his own salvation and securing his own freedom by establishing his own economic and moral independenc by his own industry and his own self-mastery, tens to throw himself on some vague influence which he denominates society and to hold that in some way responsible for the sufficiency of his support and the morality of his actions. We cannot maintain the western standard of civilization on that theory. It will have to be suported on the principle of individual responsiblity.

If we are too weak to take charge of our own morality, we shall not be strong enough to take charge of our own liberty. If we cannot govern ourselves, if we cannot observe the law, nothing remains but to have someone else govern us, to have the law enforced against us, and to step down from the honorable and abiding place of freedom to the ignominious abode of servitude.

--Calvin Coolidge

The meaning of America is not be be found in a life without toil. Freedom is only brought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort.

--Calvin Coolidge

The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny. Under this republic the rewards of industry belong to those who earn them. The only constitutional tax is the tax which ministers to public necessity. The property of the country belongs to the people of the country. Their title is absolute. They do not support any privileged class; they do not need to maintain great military forces; they ought not to be burdened with a great array of public employees. They are not required to make any contribution to Government expenditures except that which they voluntarily assess upon themselves through the action of their own representatives. Whenever taxes become burdensome a remedy can be applied by the people; but if they do not act for themselves, no one can be very successful in acting for them.

--Calvin Coolidge

The chief ideal of the American People is idealism.

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

Nearly one-tenth of our population consists of the Negro race. Our country has no more loyal citizens. But they still need sympathy, kindness, and helpfulness. They need reassurance that the requirements of the Government and society to deal out to them even-handed justice will be met. They should be protected from violence and supported in the peaceable enjoyment of the fruits of their labor.

--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

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

Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness.

--Calvin Coolidge

War is the rule of Force. Peace is the reign of Law. Let war and all force end, and peace and all law reign.

--Calvin Coolidge

If we are to promote peace on earth, whe must have a great deal more than the power of the sword. We must call into action the spiritual and moral forces of mankind.

--Calvin Coolidge

The world has had enough of the curse of hatred and selfishness, of destruction and war. It has had enough of the wrong use of material power. For the healing of nations there must be good will and charity, confidence and peace. The time has come for a more practical use of moral power, and more reliance on the principle that right makes its own might.

--Calvin Coolidge

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character." The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential."There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.

--Calvin Coolidge

I know that the influence of womanhood will guard the home, which is the citadel of the nation. I know it will be the protector of childhood. I know it will be on the side of humanity. I welcome it as a great instrument of mercy and a mighty agency of peace.

--Calvin Coolidge

Of course we look to the past for inspiration, but inspiraction is not enough. We must have action. Action can only come from ourselves; society, government, the state, call it what you will, cannot act; our only strength, our only security lies in the individual. American institutions are builded on that foundation. Tht is the meaning of self-government, the worth and responsibility of the individual. In that America has put all her trust. If that fail, democracy fails, freedom is a delusion, and slavery must prevail.

--Calvin Coolidge

If people want to fight, they'll fight with broomsticks if they can't find anyting else.

--Calvin Coolidge

No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or nsure it of victory in time of war.

--Calvin Coolidge

The observance of the law is the greatest solvent of public ills.

--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. The wise and correct course to follow in taxation is not to destroy those who have already secured success, but to create conditions under which everyone will have a better chance to be successful.

-- 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.""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

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

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

Laws do not make reforms. Reforms make laws.

--Calvin Coolidge

Politics is not an art, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. ... Politics is the process of action in public affairs. It is personal, it is individual, and nothing more. It is the art of government.

--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

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

--Calvin Coolidge

Work is not a curse, it is the perogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization. Savages do not work.

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government.

--Calvin Coolidge

The fundamental precept of liberty is toleration. We cannot permit any inquisiton either within or without the law or apply any relitious test to the holding of office. The mind of America must be forever free.

--Calvin Coolidge

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.

--Calvin Coolidge

When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal. "You can't know too much, but you can say too much.

--Calvin Coolidge

To support the Constitution, to observe the laws, is to be true to our own higher nature. That is the path, and the only path, towards liberty. Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--Calvin Coolidge

"As we turn through the pages of the press and the periodicals, as we catch the flash of billboards along the railroads and the highways, all of which have become enormous vehicles of the advertising art, I doubt if we realize at all the impressive part that these displays are coming more and more to play in modern life...We see that basically it is that of education...It makes new thoughts, new desires, new actions...Rightfully applied, it is the method by which desire is created for better things. Desire, in turn, is the crucial element separating the civilized from the uncivilized. The uncivilized make little progress because they have few desires. The inhabitants of our country are stimulated to new wants in all directions. In order to satisfy their constantly increasing desires, they necessarily expand their productive powers. They create more wealth because it is only by that method that they can satisfy their wants. It is this constantly enlarging circle that represents the increasing circle of civilization.

--Calvin Coolidge

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

--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

Advertising is the most potent influence in adapting and changing the habits and modes of life affecting what we eat, what we wear, and the work and play of a whole nation.

--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

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

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

--Calvin Coolidge

The only true and lasting peace is based on justice and right.

--Calvin Coolidge

"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own usiness."Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face 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

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

--Calvin Coolidge

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; the world is full of educated derelicts. Presistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

--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 benevolent policy. It is the foundation principle of our system of liberty.

--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 deficienceis and faults.

--Calvin Coolidge

The President cannot, with success, constantly appeal to the country. After a time he will get no response.

--Calvin Coolidge

You have to stand every day three or four hours of visitors [to the White House]. 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 cought or smile they will start up all over again.

--Calvin Coolidge

Oh, about half of them. [When asked how many people work for him in the White House.]

--Calvin Coolidge

I do not choose to run. [for President in 1928]

--Calvin Coolidge

My own participation [in the campaign] was delayed by the death of my son Calvin, which occurred on the seventh of July. He was a boy of much promise, proficient in his studies, with a scholarly mind, who had just turned sixteen.He had a remarkable insight into things.The day I became President he had just started to work in a tobacco field. When one of his fellow laborers said to him, "if my father was President I would not work in a tobacco field," Calvin replied, "If my father were your father, you would."...We do not know what might have happened to him under other circumstances, but if I had not been President, he would not have raised a blister on his toe, which resulted in blood poisoning, playing lawn tennis in the South Grounds. In his suffering he was asking me to make him well. I could not.When he went the power and the glory of the Presidency went with him.The ways of Providence are often beyond our understanding. It seemed to me that the world had need of the work that it was probable he could do. I do not know why such a price was exacted for occupying the White House.

--Calvin Coolidge

From: oldickeastman@q.com

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