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Thread: Calvin Coolidge Quotes: Inspirational Quotes from the 30th President

  1. #1

    Calvin Coolidge Quotes: Inspirational Quotes from the 30th President



    Calvin Coolidge is one of our favorite U.S. Presidents. He served two terms between 1923 and 1929, and was known for being soft-spoken and principled. Nicknamed "Silent Cal," Coolidge was deeply concerned with tax reduction and the federal budget, as well as U.S. intervention abroad in the aftermath of World War I in 1919.


    Prior to the Coolidge administration, the U.S. government had grown unchecked for years under the Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson administrations. Wealth redistribution, government regulation, and the strength of unions were on the rise during this era of American progressivism.


    When President Coolidge and his administration came to power, they helped cut the national debt almost in half, and cut America's tax rates and tax rolls to boot. These cuts worked – unemployment averaged 3.3% during Coolidge's two terms, and the American GDP increased a whopping 17.5%.


    President Coolidge was the rare politician who stuck by his principles of government restraint and fiscal responsibility. Below are a few of our favorite quotes.


    “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.”


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


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


    “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”


    “Whenever the state of the Treasury can permit, I believe in a reduction of taxes. But I am not advocating tax reduction merely for the benefit of the taxpayer; I am advocating it for the benefit of the country.”


    “The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and all other economic legislation 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.”


    “An expanding prosperity requires that the largest possible amount...be invested in productive enterprise under the direction of the best personal ability. This will not be done if the rewards of such action are largely taken away by taxation.”


    “We cannot improve the condition of the people or reform human nature by intruding the Nation into the affairs of the States or despoiling the people of their business.”


    “The success of the Government does not lie in wringing all the revenue it can from the people, but in making their burden as light and fairly distributed as possible, consistent with the proper maintenance of the necessary public functions.”


    “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the Government ...to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom.”


    “I would like it if the country could think as little as possible about the Government and give their time and attention more undividedly about the conduct of the private business of the country.”


    “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.”


    “A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government, or long remain as such.”


    “We need not concern ourselves much about the rights of property if we will faithfully observe the rights of persons. Under our institutions their rights are supreme. It is not property but the right to hold property, both great and small, which our Constitution guarantees.”


    “Civilization and profits go hand in hand.”


    “That tax is theoretically best which interferes least with business.”


    “No matter what any one may say about making the rich and the corporations pay the taxes, in the end they come out of the people who toil. It is your fellow workers who are ordered to work for the Government every time an appropriation bill is passed.”


    “The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until some one is asked to pay the bill...the people will have to furnish more revenue by paying more taxes.”


    “There is no substitute for a militant freedom. The only alternative is submission and slavery.”


    “There is no greater service we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the freedom of our own citizens.”


    “Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.”


    “When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry.”


    “The individual has rights, but only the citizen has the power to protect rights. And the protection of rights is righteous.”


    “Freedom is not only bought with a great price, it is maintained by unremitting effort.”


    “When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry. Any other conclusion would necessarily imply either privilege or servitude.”


    “If ever the citizen comes to feel that our government does not protect him in the free and equal assertion of his rights... he will withdraw his allegiance from that government...”


    “In its main features the Declaration of Independence...is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man...are ideals.”


    “Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.”


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


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


    “[But] the matchless wisdom that is enshrined in our Constitution...needs constant effort and tireless vigilance for their protection and support.”


    “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”


    “We have got so many regulatory laws already...we would be just as well off if we didn’t have any more.”


    “The people cannot look to legislation generally for success.”


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


    “I favor the policy of economy...because I wish to save people...Economy is idealism in its most practical form.”


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


    “There is no justification for public interference with purely private concerns.”


    “Unfortunately the Federal Government has strayed far afield from its legitimate business...confine our Federal expenditures to the legitimate obligations and functions of the Federal Government…the fabric of our constitutional form of government…tends to be gradually weakened and undermined by this encroachment.”


    “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.”


    “There is scarcely a word in the constitution of any of our States or of our nation that was not written there for the purpose of protecting the liberties of the people from some servitude which a despotic government had at some time imposed upon them.”


    “Where commerce has flourished there civilization has increased... Today it is not the battle fleet, but the mercantile marine which in the end will determine the destiny of nations.”


    “No complicated scheme of relief, no plan for Government fixing of prices, no resort to the public Treasury will be of any permanent value.”


    “After all, the chief business of the American people is business... In all experience, the accumulation of wealth means the multiplication of schools, the encouragement of science, the increase of knowledge, the dissemination of intelligence, the broadening of outlook, the expansion of liberties, the widening of culture. Of course the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence. But we are compelled to recognize it as a means to well-nigh every desirable achievement. So long as wealth is made the means and not the end, we need not greatly fear it.”


    “Our country is an exceedingly good example of the fact that if production be encouraged and increased, then distribution fairly well takes care of itself... no other country ever approached ours in the equal and general distribution of prosperity.”


    “We have had many attempts at regulation of industrial activity by law. Some of it has proceeded on the theory that if those who enjoyed material prosperity used it for wrong purposes, such prosperity should be limited or abolished. That is as sound as it would be to abolish writing to prevent forgery.”


    “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.”


    “Where the people themselves are the government, it needs no argument to demonstrate that what the people cannot do their government cannot do.”


    “There can be no perfect control of personal conduct by national legislation.”


    “[I will not] surrender to every emotional movement seeking remedies for economic conditions by legislation.”


    “We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more laws, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.”


    “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.”


    “When depression in business comes we begin to be very conservative in our financial affairs. We save our money and take no chances in its investment. Yet in our political actions we go in the opposite direction. We begin to support radical measures and cast our votes for those who advance the most reckless proposals. This is a curious and illogical reaction.”


    Calvin Coolidge Quotes: Inspirational Quotes from the 30th President of The United States originally appeared in The Resistance Library at Ammo.com.
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  3. #2
    '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 serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'We come here to honor the past, and in doing so render more secure the present.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Your glory lies in what you have given and may give to your country not in what your country has or may give to you.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Shall we use our power for self aggrandizement or service?'--Calvin Coolidge
    'To reduce war taxes is to give every home a better chance... Of all services which the Congress can render to the country I have no hesitation in declaring this one to be paramount.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  4. #3
    `We all came to America on different boats, but we're in the same boat now, and we have to learn to get along with each other.'--Calvin Coolidge


    ' We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people, a faith that men desire to do right, that the commonwealth is founded upon a righteousness which will endure, a reconstructive faith that the final approval of the people is given not to demagogues slavishly pandering to their selfishness, merchandizing with the clamor of the hour, but to the statesmen ministering to their welfare, representing their deep silent, abiding conviction.'--Calvin Coolidge

    `That man [Herbert Hoover] has given me advice every day, all of it bad.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'The chief business of the American people is business. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. Any newspaper who forgets this will not get very far. And the American people are idealistic people.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Riches didn't make the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence gave us the freedom to become wealthy.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  5. #4
    'I am having the usual experience with a good many members of the House and the Senate that are returning to Washington. They are all interested in some plan that calls for a considerable expenditure of public money.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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 he won't spend enough. Then the Democrats will come in and they'll spend money like water. But they don't know anything about money.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Proposals for promoting the peace of the world will have careful consideration. But we are not a people who are always seeking for a sign. We know that peace comes from honesty and fair dealing, from moderation, and a generous regard for the rights of others. The heart of the Nation is more important than treaties.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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 all will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  7. #6
    'About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.

    'No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  8. #7
    No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or insure it victory in time of war.--Calvin Coolidge

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

    'When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.'--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

    '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

    'Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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

    'A display of reason rather than a threat of force should be the determining factor in the intercourse among nations.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'One of the greatest dangers to peace lies in the economic pressure to which people find themselves subjected. One of the most practical things to be done in the world is to seek arrangements under which such pressure may be removed, so that opportunity may be renewed and hope may be revived.--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

    'The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'It takes a great man to be a good listener.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.'--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

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

    '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.'―Calvin Coolidge

    'There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or insure it victory in time of war.--Calvin Coolidge

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

    'When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.'--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

    '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

    'Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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

    'A display of reason rather than a threat of force should be the determining factor in the intercourse among nations.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'One of the greatest dangers to peace lies in the economic pressure to which people find themselves subjected. One of the most practical things to be done in the world is to seek arrangements under which such pressure may be removed, so that opportunity may be renewed and hope may be revived.--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

    'The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'It takes a great man to be a good listener.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.'--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

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

    '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.'―Calvin Coolidge

    'There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Some real gems here… +rep… & for the OP.

    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by shakey1 View Post
    Some real gems here… +rep… & for the OP.
    Thank you. Yes, when "Silent Cal" did open his mouth, some real gems emerged.

    It wasn't easy to collect these. He quickly became the original He Who Must Not Be Named. But he was worth the effort.

    A man of few words, the words we did get out of him were mighty good stuff. This is the principle and intellect that gave us the Roaring Twenties.

    Once a famously gabby Washington society flapper told him she had bet a friend she could get more than two words out of him during a dinner.

    Said Silent Cal, "You lose."
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  12. #10
    Teaching is one of the noblest of professions. It requires an adequate preparation and training, patience, devotion, and a deep sense of responsibility. Those who mold the human mind have wrought not for time, but for eternity.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Education should be the handmaid of citizenship.'--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

    'Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Unfortunately the Federal Government has strayed far afield from its legitimate business. It has trespassed upon fields where there should be no trespass. If we could confine our Federal expenditures to the legitimate obligations and functions of the Federal Government, a material reduction would be apparent. But far more important than this would be its effect upon the fabric of our constitutional form of government, which tends to be gradually weakened and undermined by this encroachment.'—Calvin Coolidge

    'Freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort.'—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

    'We have got so many regulatory laws already that in general I feel that we would be just as well off if we didn’t have any more.'—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

    'Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'One with the law is a majority.'--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

    '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

    'I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. That is the only motive to which they ever give any strong and lasting reaction.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  13. #11
    When people are bewildered, they tend to become credulous.'--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. 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.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '[Grover Cleveland] was so sound on most economic questions that his [Democratic] party deserted him.'--Calvin Coolidge

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

    'Duty is not collective. It is personal.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.'--Calvin Coolidge

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

    '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.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'This country would not be a land of opportunity, America could not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies.'--Calvin Coolidge

    Sure enough. We are, and this is not an America Coolidge would recognize.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  14. #12
    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 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.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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.'--Calvin Coolidge

    There is danger of disappointment and disaster unless there be a wider comprehension of the limitations of the law. The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the practice of primitive peoples. Such governments assumed jurisdiction over the action, property, life, and even religious convictions of their citizens down to the minutest detail. A large part of the history of free institutions is the history of the people struggling to emancipate themselves from all of this bondage.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'The underlying theory of the American form of Government is the rule of the people through their representatives, thus creating a republic. There were those who distrusted popular sovereignty, still more who distrusted all forms of monarchy; out of their deliberations came not any form of monarchy nor a pure democracy, but a republic, in which all functions of government are to be executed by chosen representatives, acting under constitutional restraints dictated by reason alone, but in all things and at all times recognizing and declaring the sovereignty of the people and the supremacy of their will expressed in accordance with prevailing law.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'If ever the citizen comes to feel that our government does not protect him in the free and equal assertion of his rights at home and abroad, he will withdraw his allegiance from that government, as he ought to, and bestow it on some more worthy object. It is idle to assume that the privilege of the strong has been destroyed unless the rights of the weak are preserved. The American theory of government means that back of the humblest citizen, supporting him in all his rights, organized for his protection, stands the whole force of the nation. That is the warrant and the sole warrant of his freedom. He can assert it in the face of all the world. The individual has rights, but only the citizen has the power to protect rights. And the protection of rights is righteous.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'There are those who would discard this plan and substitute they know not what. They would turn from a certainty, tested by time, approved by experience, to some vague experiment. They point out imperfections, for even Americans have not fully realized their ideals. There are imperfections. But the ideal is right. It is everlastingly right. What our country needs is the moral power to hold to it.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'There can be no permanent prosperity of any class or part. Such a condition can only be secured through a general and public prosperity. This means that to secure this end there must be a general distribution of the rewards of industry. Wherever this condition is maintained there you have the foundation for an increasing production and a sound financial and economic condition.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'The beginnings of modern democracy were in Athens and Sparta. That form of human relationship can neither be explained nor defended, except by reference to these examples, and a restatement of the principles on which their government rested. Both of these nations speak to us eloquently of the progress they made so long as their citizens held to these ideals, and they admonish us with an eloquence even more convincing of the decay and ruin which comes to any people when it falls away from those ideals. There is no surer road to destruction than prosperity without character.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  15. #13
    'I have had many Republican politicians tell me, "Will, you are one of Mr. Coolidge's best boosters." Well I did like him. I could get a laugh out of almost all the little things he said, but at the same time they were wise. He could put more in a line than any public man could in a whole speech.

    'Here is a thing do you reckon Mr. Coolidge worried over in late years? Now he could see further than any of these politicians. Things were going so fast and everybody was so cuckoo during his term in office, that lots of them just couldn’t possibly see how it could ever do otherwise than go up. Now Mr. Coolidge didn’t think that. He knew that it couldn't. He knew that we couldn't just keep running stocks and everything else up and up and them paying no dividends in comparison to the price. His whole fundamental training was against all that inflation. Now there was times when he casually in a speech did give some warning but he really never did come right out and say, ''Hold on there, this thing can’t go on! You people are crazy. This thing has got to bust.''

    'But how could he have said or done that? What would have been the effect? Everybody would have said, "Ha, what’s the idea of butting into our prosperity? Here we are going good, and you our President try to crab it. Let us alone. We know our business."

    'There is a thousand things they would have said to him or about him. He would have come in for a raft of criticism. The Republican Party, the party of big business, would have done their best to have stopped him, for they couldn't see it like he did, and they never could have understood until a year later.

    'Later in his own heart did Calvin Coolidge ever wish that he had preached it from the housetops regardless of what big business, his party, or what anybody would have said?

    'Now here is another thing too in Mr. Coolidge's favor in not doing it. He no doubt ever dreamed of the magnitude of this depression. That is he knew the thing had to bust, but he didn’t think it would bust so big, or be such a permanent bust. Had he known of the tremendous extent of it, I'll bet he would have defied hell and damnation and told and warned the people about it. Now in these after years as he saw the thing overwhelm everybody, he naturally thought back to those hectic days when as President the country was paying a dollar down on everything on earth.

    'But all this is what they call in baseball a ''Second Guess.'' It’s easy to see now what might have helped lighten or prolong the shock, but put yourself in his place and I guess 99 out of a 100 would have done as he did.

    'Now on the other hand in saying he saw the thing coming, might be doing him an injustice. He might not. He may not have known any more about it than all our other prominent men. But we always felt he was two jumps ahead of any of them on thinking ahead.'--Will Rogers
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  16. #14
    'These are the great charities of man on which civilization has rested. They cannot be administered by government. They come from the heart of the people or they do not come at all. They are for the redemption of man. There is no other. Civilization is always on trial, testing out, not the power of material resources, but whether there be, in the heart of the people, that virtue and character which come from charity sufficient to maintain progress. When that charity fails, civilization, though it "speak with the tongues of men and of angels," is "become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Its glory has departed. Its spirit has gone out. Its life is done.

    'It is always easier to think of the part than of the whole. It is easier for men to remember that they work at the plough, the forge, the drill, the spindle, the bench, the desk, or that they follow transportation, the law, medicine, banking, or the ministry than it is to remember that into the life of every man there goes a part of all these activities, and many more, and that whatever his occupation, each is a part of the whole nation, and that the permanent prosperity of each will stand or fall with the permanent prosperity of the whole. No man is wise enough, no combination is strong enough, to transgress this law and long escape its penalties. All artificial privilege always has and always will destroy itself. The law of service is a law of action. No artifice can long circumvent it; no fraud can long cheat it. The United States Constitution is right. Titles to nobility cannot be granted or seized.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'To the uncivilized all things are common. The measure of the strength and the enlightenment of a people is the measure of their appreciation of their great men, their devotion to their memory and the defense of the institutions which they have established. When the reverence of this nation for its great men dies, the glory of the nation will die with it.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'The final solution of these problems will not be found in the interposition of government in all the affairs of the people, but rather in following the wisdom of Washington, who refused to exercise authority over the people, that the people might exercise authority over themselves. It is not in the laying on of force, but in the development of the public conscience that salvation lies.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'The National Union which Washington and Hamilton had formed, which Marshall had declared, which Webster and Jackson and Clay had defended, Abraham Lincoln saved, and, saving, made free. He stands with those who believed in the righteous power and the just authority of a free government. He saw clearly that no free government could derive its just powers from anything less than a free people. What he saw, what he believed, when the time came he was ready to do. In all things he followed the truth to the end.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  17. #15
    'It was Lincoln who said of Grant, "I cannot spare this man. He fights." It was Grant himself who said, "Let us have peace."'--Calvin Coolidge

    'This is the civilization which intelligence has created and which sacrifice has redeemed. We did not make it. It is our duty to serve it. Education ought to assess it at its true worth. It ought not to despise it but reverence it. If there be in education a better estimation of true values, it must be on the side of a great optimism. Under its examination human relationship stands forth as justified and sanctified. There is no place for the cynic or the pessimist. Who is he that can take no part in business because he believes it is selfish? Who is he that can take no part in religion because he believes it is imperfect? These institutions are the instruments by which an eternal purpose is working out the salvation of the world. It is not for us to regard them with disdain; it is for us to work with them, to dedicate ourselves to them, to justify our faith in them. It is a high calling in which to be even a doorkeeper is better than to rule over many multitudes of critics and philistines.

    'The great service which education must perform is to confirm our faith in the world, establish our settled convictions, and maintain an open mind. The heritage of all the past is neither mean nor insignificant. It is a high estate. The work of the world is neither undignified nor degrading. It lacks neither character nor nobility. It is the means and measure of all real manhood. It is truly the creation and the redemption. Those who are worthily engaged in it are ministers of a holy cause, priests of a divine imposition.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'So long as the National Government confined itself to providing those fundamentals of liberty, order, and justice for which it was primarily established, its course was reasonably clear and plain. No large amount of revenue was required. No great swarms of public employees were necessary. There was little clash of special interests or different sections, and what there was of this nature consisted not of petty details but of broad principles. There was time for the consideration of great questions of policy. There was an opportunity for mature deliberation. What the government undertook to do it could perform with a fair degree of accuracy and precision.

    'But this has all been changed by embarking on a policy of a general exercise of police powers, by the public control of much private enterprise and private conduct, and of furnishing a public supply for much private need. Here are these enormous obligations which the people found they themselves were imperfectly discharging. They therefore undertook to lay their burdens on the National Government. Under this weight the former accuracy of administration breaks down. The government has not at its disposal a supply of ability, honesty, and character necessary for the solution of all these problems, or an executive capacity great enough for their perfect administration. Nor is it in the possession of a wisdom which enables it to take great enterprises and manage them with no ground for criticism. We cannot rid ourselves of the human element in our affairs by an act of legislation which places them under the jurisdiction of a public commission.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Along with the solemn assurance of freedom and equality goes the guarantee of the right of the individual to possess, enjoy, and control the dollar which he earns, and the principle that it shall not be taken away without due process of law. This necessarily goes with any theory of independence or of liberty, which would be only a mockery unless it secured to the individual the rewards of his own effort and industry.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'There are two broad theories which have held sway in the world. One is the system of class and caste, the system of servitude of body and of mind, of a claim of divine right of the rulers by inheritance--a system where the individual is nothing and the government is all supreme. Under such a conception there can be no real freedom, no independent choice, and therefore no responsibility. The people look to the rulers. They do what they are told to do; they believe what they are told to believe. A bureaucracy will grow up under which will be rigid supervision of every activity, whether public or private. Paternalism will flourish in its worst form. Carried to its logical conclusion, such institutions might provide, for a short space of time, a machine of apparent great efficiency. But such a result could be but temporary. Either the life will go out of such a community, its initiative will vanish, and its society will fossilize into a state where there is neither hope nor progress, or undertaking to extend its dominion by aggression in accordance with its principle, it will be beset from without and overcome, or responding to an irresistible urge, its own subjects, casting down this artificial edifice, will assert their true nature in a declaration of their right to be free. Governments apparently stable and a seeming civilization have been reared on this theory, but always their end has been destruction.

    'There is another system with which every American should be familiar, a system of equality and of freedom, not without the claim of divine right but recognizing that such right reposes in the people; a system where the individual is clothed with inalienable rights, the people are supreme, the government is their agent. Under this conception there is real freedom, real independence, and grave personal responsibility. The rulers look to the people. Their authority is the public will, ascertained in accordance with law. There will be the least possible interference with private affairs. Realizing that it is the people who support the government and not the government which supports the people, there will be no resort to paternalism. Under such institutions there may appear to be a lack of machine-like efficiency, but there will be no lack of character. Private initiative will be stimulated. Self-reliance and self-control will be increased. Society will remain a living organism sustaining hope and progress, content to extend its dominion not by conquest but by service. Such is the system of self-government, the orderly rule of the people, carrying within itself a remedy for its own disorders and the power of self-perpetuation. This is the ideal of America.

    'No one would say that existence under these conditions is effortless. Independence is exceedingly exacting, self-control is arduous, self-government is difficult. Always there is the temptation that some element of these should be surrendered in exchange for security and ease. The appeal to passion and prejudice always lies in this direction. The proposal to despoil others of their possessions is a manifestation of the same spirit. This is the reason that to certain of our native-born, and more often to our foreign-born, the American Republic proves a disappointment. They thought that self-government meant the absence of all restraint, that independence meant living without work, and that freedom was the privilege of doing what they wanted to do. It has been a hard lesson for them to learn that self-government is still government, that the rule of the people does not mean absence of authority, that independence means self-support, and that complete freedom means complete obedience to law They are disappointed more than ever when they learn, as ever they do, that these are so, not because they have been decreed by some body of men, but that they are so by the very nature of things, and all the governments in the world are powerless to change them.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'It is never the part of wisdom to minimize the power of evil, but it is far less the part of wisdom to forget the power of good.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'One of the chief errors of the present day is that of relying too much on the government and too little on our own efforts and on the people themselves. This comes to pass by supposing that, when there is something which ought to be done, we can avoid all personal responsibility by a simple ordinance requiring that hereafter it shall be done by the government. We cannot divest ourselves of our burdens and responsibilities by any such easy method. Where the people themselves are the government, it needs no argument to demonstrate that what the people cannot do their government cannot do.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'The country cannot be run on the promise of what it will do for the people. The only motive to which they will continue ready to respond is the opportunity to do something for themselves, to achieve their own greatness, to work out their own destiny.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'We review the past not in order that we may return to it but that we may find in what direction, straight and clear, it points into the future.'--Calvin Coolidge

    [The founding fathers] let slip their grasp upon conventionalities that they might lay a firmer hold upon realities.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'It is necessary always to give a great deal of thought to liberty. There is no substitute for it. Nothing else is quite so effective. Unless it be preserved, there is little else that is worth while. In complete freedom of action the people oftentimes have a more effective remedy than can be supplied by government interference. Individual initiative, in the long run, is a firmer reliance than bureaucratic supervision. When the people work out their own economic and social destiny, they generally reach sound conclusions.'--Calvin Coolidge

    '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.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Although it is characteristic of Englishmen to have great love for a king so long as he respects the liberties of the people, yet the fact that they drove out one king, rebelled against two and executed three, shows clearly enough that there was always a strong idea of the divine right of the people as well as of kings.

    'Precedents, then, are by no means wanting among Englishmen for the successful resistance of arbitrary despotism whenever it encroached upon their liberties.'--Calvin Coolidge

    'Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.'--Calvin Coolidge
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  18. #16




    Last edited by acptulsa; 07-04-2022 at 12:22 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...



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  20. #17
    Collecting more taxes than absolutely necessary....

    "Absolutely necessary taxes" = 0
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
    - Kim Kardashian

    Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!

    My pronouns are he/him/his

  21. #18
    How ironic that one of the most underrated and best presidents just happens to be born on July 4th.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Globalist View Post
    How ironic that one of the most underrated and best presidents just happens to be born on July 4th.
    Thank you very much for reminding me. That was slipping my mind today.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...



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