Calvin Coolidge was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from New England, born in Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of Massachusetts. These Calvin Coolidge quotes on persistence, taxes, love will motivate you.
Best Calvin Coolidge 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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge, Calvin Coolidge quotes on persistence
- “Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America is kept American.” ~ Calvin Coolidge Quotes
- “We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development. 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. It is on that side of life that it is desirable to put the emphasis at the present time. If that side is strengthened, the other side will take care of itself.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“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.” ~ 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
- “Your ability to face setbacks and disappointments without giving up will be the measure of your ability to succeed.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government, and more for themselves” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“The best help that benevolence and philanthropy can give is that which induces everybody to help himself.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“Money will not purchase character or good government.” ~ 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
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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
- “One day the President and Mrs. Coolidge were visiting a government farm. Soon after their arrival they were taken off on separate tours. When Mrs. Coolidge passed the chicken pens she paused to ask the man in charge if the rooster copulates more than once each day. “Dozens of times, was the reply.” “Please tell that to the President,” Mrs. Coolidge requested. When the President passed the pens and was told about the roosters, he asked “Same hen every time?” “Oh no, Mr. President, a different one each time.” The President nodded slowly, then said, “Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
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“Duty is not collective; it is personal.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “Wherever we look, the work of the chemist has raised the level of our civilization and has increased the productive capacity of the nation.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
- “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.” ~ Calvin Coolidge
