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Calvin Coolidge Quotes - Page 5

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Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.

Calvin Coolidge
Government, Ideals
Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century”, Images from the Past Incorporated

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.

Calvin Coolidge
Race, People, Support
Speech in Bennington, Vermont, September 21, 1928.

Honorable Senators: My sincerest thanks I offer you. Conserve the firm foundations of our institutions. Do your work with the spirit of a soldier in the public service. Be loyal to the Commonwealth and to yourselves and be brief; above all be brief.

Calvin Coolidge
Soldier, Loyal, Foundation

I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.

Calvin Coolidge
History, Silence, Harm
" Svennis, Dorothy and the stories that should not be told" by Harry Pearson, www.theguardian.com. April 22, 2002.

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

Calvin Coolidge
Government, People, Substance

Anytime you don't want anything you get it.

Calvin Coolidge
Want

Nations are beginning to look to some vague organization, some nebulous course of humanity, to pay their bills and tell them what to do. This is not local self-government. It is not American. It is not the method which has made this country what it is. We can not maintain the western standard of civilization on that theory. If it is supported at all, it will have to be supported on the principle of individual responsibility.

Calvin Coolidge
Country, Responsibility, Government

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.

Calvin Coolidge
Equality, Rights, Ideas
"Foundations of the Republic; Speeches and Addresses". Book by Calvin Coolidge, 1926.

In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience of the law.

Calvin Coolidge
Law, Citizens, Republic

It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

Calvin Coolidge
Character, Law, Nations
Speech on the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926.

The welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound together. ... The general welfare cannot be provided for in any one act, but it is well to remember that the benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all.

Calvin Coolidge
Powerful, Together, Benefits
Calvin Coolidge (1924). “Calvin Coolidge, His Ideals of Citizenship as Revealed Through His Speeches and Writings”

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

Calvin Coolidge
Character, Self, Wealth

It is not in violence and crime that our greatest danger lies. These evils are so perfectly apparent that they very quickly arouse the moral power of the people for their suppression. A far more serious danger lurks in the shirking of those responsibilities of citizenship, where the evil may not be so noticeable but is more insidious and likely to be more devastating.

Calvin Coolidge
Lying, Responsibility, People

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.

Calvin Coolidge
Character, Responsibility, Government
"Speech on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence". en.wikisource.org. July 05, 1926.

The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.

Calvin Coolidge
Independent, Rights, People
Speech on the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926.

The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential.

Calvin Coolidge
Country, Vision, Common

Education should be the handmaid of citizenship.

Calvin Coolidge
Education, Citizenship, Should
Calvin Coolidge (1925). “America's Need for Education: And Other Educational Addresses”

July 4, 1776 was the historic day on which the representatives of three millions of people vocalized Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the world that they proposed to establish an independent nation on the theory that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Calvin Coolidge
Independent, Men, Pursuit Of Happiness
"Equal Rights". Speech by Calvin Coolidge, en.wikisource.org. 1920.

We cannot weaken or destroy political parties in ther United States without weakening or destroying the rule of the people.... Those who support party organization and submit to party discipline are supporting the only course yet discovered for orderly government by the people.

Calvin Coolidge
Party, Government, Organization

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.

Calvin Coolidge
Practice, Social, Relation
Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses”, p.196, The Minerva Group, Inc.

Never go out to meet trouble. If you just sit still, nine cases out of ten, someone will intercept it before it reaches you.

Calvin Coolidge
Political, Politics, Nine

If the Government gets into business on any large scale, we soon find that the beneficiaries attempt to play a large part in the control. While in theory it is to serve the public, in practice it will be very largely serving private interests. It comes to be regarded as a species of government favor and those who are the most adroit get the larger part of it.

Calvin Coolidge
Government, Practice, Play

We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither.

Calvin Coolidge
Government, Civilization, America

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.

Calvin Coolidge
Religious, Men, Worship
Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses”, p.173, The Minerva Group, Inc.

Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.

Calvin Coolidge
Memorial Day, Hero, Patriotic