Calvin Coolidge

From Wikiquote
Jump to: navigation, search
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (4 July 1872 – 5 January 1933) was the twenty-ninth (1921–1923) Vice President and the thirtieth (1923–1929) President of the United States.

Contents

Sourced [edit]

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.
It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.
  • Workmen’s compensation, hours and conditions of labor are cold consolations, if there be no employment.
    • From the speech ‘Plymouth, Labor Day’ (1 September 1919), as printed in Have Faith in Massachusetts: A Collection of Speeches and Messages (2nd Ed.), Houghton Mifflin, pp. 200-201 : see link above
  • Parties do not maintain themselves. They are maintained by effort. The government is not self-existent. It is maintained by the effort of those who believe in it. The people of America believe in American institutions, the American form of government and the American method of transacting business.
    • Speech before the Republican Commercial Travelers' Club, Boston, Massachusetts (April 10, 1920); in Manuscripts: speeches and messages of Calvin Coolidge, 1895–1924, the Massachusetts State Library, George Fingold Library, Boston.
  • There are racial considerations too grave to be brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides. Quality of mind and body suggests that observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation as immigration law.
    • "Whose Country Is This?," Good Housekeeping Magazine (February 1921).
  • To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.
    • Message to the National Security League in honor of Constitution Day, quoted in New York Times (17 September 1923) "Ceremonies Mark Constitution Day"
  • The Constitution is the sole source and guaranty of national freedom.
    • Address accepting nomination as Republican candidate for president, Washington, D.C. (August 4, 1924); published as Address of Acceptance (1924), p. 15.
  • I believe in the American Constitution. I favor the American system of individual enterprise, and I am opposed to any general extension of government ownership, and control. I believe not only in advocating economy in public expenditure, but in its practical application and actual accomplishment. I believe in a reduction and reform of taxation, and shall continue my efforts in that direction.
    • From his formal acceptance of the Republican party’s nomination for President, as quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma,Robert Sobel,Regnery Publishing (1998),p. 292 : ISBN 0895264102, 9780895264107
    • Sobel gives the date of this address as 14 August 1924.
  • 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.
  • What we need is not more Federal government, but better local government.
    • Address at Arlington National Cemetery (30 May 1925), in Foundations of the Republic (1926), Coolidge, Ayer Publishing, p. 228
  • Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.
  • We live in an age of science and abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create the Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all of our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage bequeathed to us, we must be like minded as the Founders who created. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had and for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshipped.
  • 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 of the people of that day and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But, that reasoning cannot be applied to the great charter.
    • Foundations of the Republic; Speeches and Addresses (1926), p. 451.
  • 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 a time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more "modern," but more ancient than those of our Revolutionary ancestors.
    • Foundations of the Republic; Speeches and Addresses (1926), p. 451.
  • Mr. Hoover, if you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you and you have to battle with only one of them.
    • As recounted by Herbert Hoover ; from Coolidge: An American Enigma, Robert Sobel, Regnery Publishing (2000), p. 242 : ISBN 0895262479, 9780895262479
  • I do not choose to run for President in 1928.
    • Statement to reporters (2 August 1927); cited in Bartlett's Famous Quotations, 16th ed. (1992).
  • It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our eternal hills.
  • I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.
    • From "Vermont is a state I love" (21 September 1928) : see link above.
  • In other periods of depression it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground for hope — nothing of man. But there is still religion, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That continues as a solid basis for hope and courage.
    • Conversation with Charles Andrews (1 January 1933), quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma (2000)
  • I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do on its enforcement. It is a maxim of our institutions, that the government does not make the people, but the people make the government.
    • From an address before the Women’s National Committee for Law Enforcement, as quoted in The New England historical and genealogical register, Volume 87, H. F. Waters, New England Historic & Genealogical Society (1933), p. 100
  • 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; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education 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.
    • Quote from a program at a Coolidge memorial service (1933); cited in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999).
  • (Speaking of Chinese president Sun Yat-sen) "...combined Benjamin Franklin and George Washington of China."
    • Source: The Human Odyssey: Volume 2 by Tanim Ansary et al (page 653)


Misattributed [edit]

  • Coolidge: Sins.
    Mrs. Coolidge: Well, what did he say about it?
    Coolidge: He was against it.
    • when asked by his wife what a preacher's sermon had been about
    • John H. McKee, Coolidge: Wit and Wisdom, 1933
    • Author Nigel Rees claims this is apocryphal:
      • The taciturn President became famous for monosyllabic replies. A story from the twenties has Mrs. Coolidge asking him the subject of a sermon he had heard. "Sin," he answered. When prompted to elaborate on the clergyman's theme, Coolidge is said to have replied: "He was against it." Coolidge remarked that this story would have been funnier if it had been true.
        • Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century, page 67.
  • They hired the money, didn't they?
    • Reportedly in response to a proposal to cancel the debts owed by Allied nations to the United States following World War I; reported in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 18.
  • Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers
    • Widely misattributed and misquoted. Coolidge was quoting Tennyson in a June 3, 1925 speech to the US Naval Academy. Foundations of the Republic pp 237 : THE NAVY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF PEACE The poet reminds us that "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast ...

Quotes about Coolidge [edit]

  • Isn't it past your bedtime, Calvin?
    • Groucho Marx, breaking character to address President Coolidge after he learned that the President was in the audience of their Broadway show.[citation needed]
  • [President Coolidge's] active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone… And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy…
  • As president, Calvin Coolidge didn't do much of anything, but at the time, that's what we needed to have done.

External links [edit]

Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Commons
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Retrieved from "http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Calvin_Coolidge&oldid=1555882"