John Calvin Coolidge Jr., commonly known as Calvin Coolidge, was the 30th President of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. He was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, to John Calvin Coolidge Sr. and Victoria Josephine Moor.
Coolidge graduated from Amherst College in 1895 and went on to study law at the Hammond Law School in Boston. He was admitted to the bar in 1897 and began practicing law in Northampton, Massachusetts.
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In 1898, Coolidge was elected to the Northampton City Council, where he served for two years. He was then elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served from 1907 to 1908. He was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1911 and served as its president from 1914 to 1915.
Coolidge’s political career continued to rise, and in 1919, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He became Governor of Massachusetts in 1919 when the incumbent, Samuel W. McCall, resigned to run for the U.S. Senate. Coolidge was elected to a full term as governor in 1920.
In 1923, President Warren G. Harding died while in office, and Coolidge was sworn in as president. During his presidency, Coolidge championed tax cuts and a reduction in government spending. He also signed the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration from certain countries, particularly those in Southern and Eastern Europe.
Coolidge was known for his quiet and reserved personality, earning him the nickname “Silent Cal.” He was also known for his frugality, famously stating, “The chief business of the American people is business.” His policies helped to usher in a period of economic prosperity known as the “Roaring Twenties.”
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Coolidge chose not to run for re-election in 1928, and he returned to his home in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he lived until his death on January 5, 1933, at the age of 60.
The timeless wisdom of Calvin Coolidge as he shares profound insights on hard work and responsibility in the following quotes.
Famous Calvin Coolidge Quotes
1. “It takes a great man to be a good listener.”
2. “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.”
3. “There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means.”
4. “Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”
5. “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”
6. “If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.”
7. “We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”
8. “I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.”
9. “To the American People: Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world Presidential message, December 25, 1927”
10. “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
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11. “Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.”
12. “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.”
13. “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?”
14. “Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.”
15. “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.”
16. “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.”
17. “The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.”
18. “The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good.”
19. “Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.”
20. “This country would not be a land of opportunity, America could not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies.”
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21. “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.”
22. “I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.”
23. “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.”
24. “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.”
25. “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. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.”
26. “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.”
27. “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 be able to succeed.”
28. “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”
29. “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”
30. “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 amount of hard work that is put into it.”
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31. “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.”
32. “The business of America is business. ”
33. “It is our theory that the people own the government, not that the government should own the people.”
34. “Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It does not denial of the divine right of kings; it asserts the divine right of all men.”
35. “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.”
36. “Civilization and profits go hand in hand”
37. “When a man begins to feel that he is the only one whou can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.”
38. “The Business of Our Firm is Business”
39. “The Business of America is Business”-Calvin Coolidge”
40. “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you”
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41. “The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.”
42. “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.”
43. “You don’t have to explain something you haven’t said.”
44. “IT is a very old saying that you never can tell what you can do until you try. The more I see of life the more I am convinced of the wisdom of that observation.”
45. “Well, they’re going to elect that Superman Hoover, and he’s going to have some trouble. He’s going to have to spend money, but it won’t be enough. Then the Democrats will come in. But they don’t know anything about money.[To his Secret Service man, Edmund Starling]”
46. “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.”
47. “The words of the President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately. It would be exceedingly easy to set the country all by the ears and foment hatreds and jealousies, which, by destroying faith and confidence, would help nobody and harm everybody. The end would be the destruction of all progress.”
48. “It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man. 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.”
49. “Economy is idealism in its most practical form.”
50. “It has been my observation in life that, if one will only exercise the patience to wait, his wants are likely to be filled.”
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51. “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.”
52. “Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.”
53. “Any man who has been placed in the White House cannot feel that it is the result of his own exertions or his own merit. Some power outside and beyond him becomes manifest through him. As he contemplates the workings of his office, he comes to realize with an increasing sense of humility that he is but an instrument in the hands of God.”
54. “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.”
55. “The world is full of educated derelicts”
56. “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort and effort means work.”
57. “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.”
58. “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.”
59. “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”
60. “Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.”
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61. “I have never been hurt by what I have not said.”
62. “Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.”
63. “I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.”
64. “It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother. I cannot describe mine.”
65. “Wherever we look, the work of the chemist has raised the level of our civilization and has increased the productive capacity of our nation.”
66. “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.”
67. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.Genius will not; un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb.”
68. “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.”
69. “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.”
70. “Who did this ”
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71. “The chief business of the American people is business.”
72. “It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man. 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. .”
73. “We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp.”
74. “While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish.”
75. “I have often said that there was no cause for feeling disturbed at being misrepresented in the press. It would be only when they began to say things detrimental to me which were true that I should feel alarm.”
76. “Fate bestows its rewards on those who put themselves in the proper attitude to receive them.
77. “I had a heart attack for dinner”
78. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”
79. “So far as each individual is concerned all he can do is to take the abilities he has and make the most of them. His power over the past is gone. His power over the future depends on what he does with himself in the present. If he wishes to live and progress he must work.”
80. “The man who builds a factory builds a temple, . . . the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.”
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81. “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.”
82. “I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.”
83. “Your ability to face setbacks and disappointments without giving up will be the measure of your ability to succeed.”
84. “One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.”
85. “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government, and more for themselves”
86. “To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.”
87. “Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.”
88. “We are too solicitous for government intervention, on the theory, first, that the people themselves are helpless, and second, that the Government has superior capacity for action. Often times both of these conclusions are wrong.”
89. “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.”
90. “The best help that benevolence and philanthropy can give is that which induces everybody to help himself.”
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91. “What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told.”
92. “In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man – these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.”
93. “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.”
94. “Money will not purchase character or good government.”
95. “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.”
96. “We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth, peace, security, liberty, our family, our friends, our home. . .But when we look at our flag and behold it emblazoned with all our rights we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done.”
97. “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.”
98. “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
99. “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.”
100. “Duty is not collective; it is personal.”