Calvin Coolidge Quotes

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

You can't know too much, but you can say too much.

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.

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

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.

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

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

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

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

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.

Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

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.

It would be folly to argue that the people cannot make political mistakes.

They can and do make grave mistakes. They know it, they pay the penalty, but compared with the mistakes which have been made by every kind of autocracy they are unimportant.

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.

Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverance 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.

A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.

Your ability to face setbacks and disappointments without giving up will be the measure of your ability to succeed.

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.

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.

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

The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

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.

The best help that benevolence and philanthropy can give is that which induces everybody to help himself.

Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.

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.

Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.

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.

Human nature provides sufficient distrust of all that is alien, so that there is no need of any artificial supply.

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.

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

When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.

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

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

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.

What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told.

Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control.

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

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.

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.

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.

Any reward that is worth having only comes to the industrious. The success which is made in any walk of life is measured almost exactly by the amount of hard work that is put into it.

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

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

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.