Calvin Coolidge Quotes

We have too much legislating by clamor, by tumult, by pressure. Representative government ceases when outside influence of any kind is substituted for the judgment of the representative.

You know, I have found in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me.

The business of the country is business.

No one ever lost his job by listening too much.

Business will be either better or worse.

To place your name by gift or bequest in the keeping of an active educational institution is to...make a permanent contribution to the welfare of humanity.

The chief business of America is business.

We need not concern ourselves much about rights of property if we faithfully observe the rights of persons.

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.

That man has offered me unsolicited advice for six years, most of it bad.

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.

Nobody will ever forget what I've accomplished.

The centralization of power in Washington, which nearly all members of Congress deplore in their speech and then support by their votes, steadily increases.

The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of the law for the virtues of men.

Public debt [is] a burden on all the people.

The more I study it [the Constitution], the more I have come to admire it, realizing that no other document devised by the hand of man ever brought so much progress and happiness to humanity.

There is no escaping the fact that when the taxation of large incomes is excessive, they tend to disappear.

There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes.

A government which requires of the people the contribution of the bulk of their substance and rewards cannot be classed as a free government.

Self-government means self support.

I am for economy. After that I am for more economy. At this time and under present conditions that is my conception of serving all the people.

The government can supply no substitute for enterprise.

It is very difficult to reconcile the American ideal of a sovereign people capable of owning and managing their own government with an inability to own and manage their own business.

It is only when people can feel that their lives and the property which their industry has produced today will continue to be safe...that there can be...stability of value and...economic progress.

I do not choose to run for President in 1928.

The higher state to which [America] seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races.

One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American people is economy in government.

Why don't we just buy one airplane and let the pilots take turns flying it.

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.

Coolidge expressed his "sympathy with the deep and intense longing which finds such fine expression in the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine."

The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.

We do not need more knowledge, we need more character!

Can those entrusted with the gravest authority set any example save that of the sternest obedience to the law?

War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law.

Whenever I indulge my sense of humor, it gets me into trouble.

Prosperity cannot be divorced from humanity.

Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization.

Works which endure come from the soul of the people. The mighty in their pride walk alone to destruction. The humble walk hand in hand with providence to immortality. Their works survive.

The things I never say never get me into trouble.

The right of the police of Boston to affiliate has always been questioned, never granted, is now prohibited.... There is no rightto strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.

Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence.

The benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all.

Nature is inexorable. If men do not follow the truth they cannot live.

One insidious practice which sugar-coats the dose of Federal intrusion is the division of expense . . .

It would be difficult to conceive a finer example of true sport.

Baseball is our national game.

It seems to me probable that of all our economic life the element on which we are inclined to place too low an estimate is advertising.

If you can get enough votes so that mine will make a majority, you can have it.

I should think that an ordinary copy of the King James version would have been good enough for those Congressmen.