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Seasonable Sayings
of Calvin Coolidge
In the booming 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.
Compiled by Dick
Eastman
The policy of our foreign
relations, casting aside any suggestion of force,
rests solely 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
judgments, 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 there
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 independence
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 supported on the principle of
individual responsibility.
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
Unless we live rationally, we
perish physically, mentally, spiritually.
--Calvin Coolidge
Communism will fail because
what it attempts is against human nature.
--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
We are not
going to be able to avoid meeting the world and
bearing our part of the burdens of the world. I
desire my country to meet them without evasion
and without fear, in an upright, downright,
square American way.
--Calvin Coolidge
If we are to
promote peace on earth, we 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 inspiration 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 built on that foundation.
That 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 anything else.
--Calvin Coolidge
No nation ever
had an army large enough to guarantee it against
attack in time of peace, or insure it of victory in
time of war.
--Calvin Coolidge
The observance
of the law is the greatest solvent of public ills.
--Calvin Coolidge
If the people want
a man, they will nominate him; if they do not want him,
he had best let the nomination go to another.
--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
Work if the
expression of intelligent action for a specified end.
It is not industry, but idleness, that is degrading.
--Calvin Coolidge
Firestone, Coolidge,
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison
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 prerogative 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 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.
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
What men owe to the
love and help of good women can never be told.
--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
Charles Lindberg and the
30th President
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 business. "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.
Persistence 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 deficiencies 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 cough 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 
Silent Cal was the
first "Talkie" President
Coolidge on Lindbergh
solo flight across the Atlantic 1927:
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Draft the
Corporations
-- Warren G. Harding
By Dick Eastman
...Here is an amazingly good but unfortunately
long-forgotten idea from the President that
imposter historians like Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
have been deceitfully telling us was
"the worst president in our history."
Revisionist Historians, i.e., true historians,
know better...