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Home » 114 Calvin Coolidge Quotes on the Bitter Truths Grow and Evolve

114 Calvin Coolidge Quotes on the Bitter Truths Grow and Evolve

Calvin Coolidge Quotes on the Bitter Truths Grow and Evolve

Calvin Coolidge Quotes: Learn more about life, business, and governance through this collection of Calvin Coolidge quotes. More than one hundred of the most famous lines and teachings that the 30th President of the United States ever uttered are included in this book, so there is no question that you will learn some valuable lessons from him. What Kind of Worldview Have You Developed as a Result of Reading These Calvin Coolidge Quotes? There were those who disagreed with the conservative leadership style and the policies that Calvin Coolidge implemented. Despite this, he managed to get things done in his own unique way. In his memoirs, President Ronald Reagan wrote about him: “He wasn’t a man with flamboyant looks or style, but he got things done in a quiet way.” The administration of Calvin Coolidge was not an easy one because he was the driving force behind the growth and change that followed World War I. The nation was facing enormous amounts of debt, a depression, and casualties as a result of the war. But by putting his policies into place, he was able to grow the economy, which helped him pay off the country’s war debt and improve the country’s overall condition.

Calvin Coolidge Quotes on the Bitter Truths Grow and Evolve

Do you believe that Calvin Coolidge was a good president who was able to get things done? What are your thoughts on his conservative approach to leadership, the economy, and relations between employers and employees? It is well known that during his presidency, Coolidge reduced the amount of interference the government had in the affairs of businesses and private corporations, thereby enabling those entities to thrive and grow on their own. There is a great deal more to learn from his experiences as he led the United States of America through what we now refer to as the Roaring Twenties, which was a time of social and cultural upheaval as well as excess.

1. “We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” — Calvin Coolidge

2. “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

3. “It takes a great man to be a good listener.” — Calvin Coolidge

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4. “The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.” — Calvin Coolidge

5. “It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in divine power, we could have little faith in ourselves.” — Calvin Coolidge

6. “If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct, we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.” — Calvin Coolidge

7. “Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.” — Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge Quotes

8. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.” — Calvin Coolidge

9. “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” — Calvin Coolidge

10. “Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.” — Calvin Coolidge

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11. “The slogan, ‘Press On!’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” — Calvin Coolidge

12. “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.” — Calvin Coolidge

13. “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind.” — Calvin Coolidge

14. “The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good.” — Calvin Coolidge

15. “I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.” — Calvin Coolidge

16. “Don’t you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?” — Calvin Coolidge

17. “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

18. “Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.” — Calvin Coolidge

19. “Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.” — Calvin Coolidge

20. “There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.” — Calvin Coolidge

21. “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

22. “Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.” — Calvin Coolidge

23. “No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.” — Calvin Coolidge

24. “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.” — Calvin Coolidge

25. “Peace, justice, humanity, charity—these cannot be legislated into being. They are the result of divine grace.” — Calvin Coolidge

26. “Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.” — Calvin Coolidge

27. “To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.” — Calvin Coolidge

28. “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” — Calvin Coolidge

29. “Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge anyone to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.” — Calvin Coolidge

30. “Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is a great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of the regeneration and redemption of mankind.” — Calvin Coolidge

31. “There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of law for the virtue of man.” — Calvin Coolidge

32. “Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It does not deny the divine right of kings; it asserts the divine right of all men.” — Calvin Coolidge

33. “In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.” — Calvin Coolidge

34. “The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.” — Calvin Coolidge

35. “The government of the United States is a device for maintaining, in perpetuity, the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.” — Calvin Coolidge

36. “Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.” — Calvin Coolidge

37. “Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.” — Calvin Coolidge

38. “There are only two main theories of government in our world. One rests on righteousness and the other on force. One appeals to reason, and the other appeals to the sword. One is exemplified in the republic, the other is represented by despotism.” — Calvin Coolidge

39. “The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country.” — Calvin Coolidge

40. “Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.” — Calvin Coolidge

41. “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

42. “Prosperity cannot be divorced from humanity.” — Calvin Coolidge

43. “It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.” — Calvin Coolidge

44. “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.” — Calvin Coolidge

45. “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.” — Calvin Coolidge

46. “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 is to make the effort.” — Calvin Coolidge

47. “There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.” — Calvin Coolidge

48. “Industry, thrift, and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.” — Calvin Coolidge

49. “You can’t know too much, but you can say too much.” — Calvin Coolidge

50. “Until we can re-establish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.” — Calvin Coolidge

51. “The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.” — Calvin Coolidge

52. “When people are bewildered, they tend to become credulous.” — Calvin Coolidge

53. “Any man who does not like dogs and wants them about, does not deserve to be in the White House.” — Calvin Coolidge

54. “No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need. It performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.” — Calvin Coolidge

55. “Doubters do not achieve. Skeptics do not contribute. Cynics do not create.” — Calvin Coolidge

56. “We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.” — Calvin Coolidge

57. “We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love.” — Calvin Coolidge

58. “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” — Calvin Coolidge

59. “I favor the policy of the economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.” — Calvin Coolidge

60. “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development, physically or intellectually, without effort; and effort means work.” — Calvin Coolidge

61. “Workmen’s compensation, hours, and conditions of labor are cold consolations if there is no employment.” — Calvin Coolidge

62. “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.” — Calvin Coolidge

63. “Duty is not collective; it is personal.” — Calvin Coolidge

64. “Nature is inexorable. If men do not follow the truth, they cannot live.” — Calvin Coolidge

65. “Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil.” — Calvin Coolidge

66. “No man ever listened himself out of a job” — Calvin Coolidge

67. “When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.” — Calvin Coolidge

68. “Economics is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.” — Calvin Coolidge

69. “Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.” — Calvin Coolidge

70. “Changing a college curriculum is like moving a graveyard—you never know how many friends the dead have until you try to move them!” — Calvin Coolidge

71. “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 to hope—nothing of man.” — Calvin Coolidge

72. “It would be difficult to conceive a finer example of true sport.” — Calvin Coolidge

73. “While I do not think it was so intended, I have always been of the opinion that this turned out to be much the best for me. I had no national experience. What I have ever been able to do has been the result of first learning how to do it. I am not gifted with intuition. I need not only hard work but experience to be ready to solve problems. The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage.” — Calvin Coolidge

74. “Our great hope lies in developing what is good.” — Calvin Coolidge

75. “The country is not in good condition.” — Calvin Coolidge

76. “Industry cannot flourish if labor languishes.” — Calvin Coolidge

77. “Eat it up, make it do, wear it out.” — Calvin Coolidge

78. “I guess I am not naturally energetic. I like to sit around and talk.” — Calvin Coolidge

79. “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.” — Calvin Coolidge

80. “There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes.” — Calvin Coolidge

81. “Do the day’s work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don’t be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don’t be a demagogue. Don’t hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don’t hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table.” — Calvin Coolidge

82. “Don’t hurry to legislate. Give the administration a chance to catch up with legislation.” — Calvin Coolidge

83. “When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.” — Calvin Coolidge

84. “No matter what anyone may say about making the rich and the corporations pay the taxes, in the end, they come out of the people who toil. It is your fellow workers who are ordered to work for the government every time an appropriation bill is passed. The people pay the expense of the government, often many times over, in the increased cost of living. I want taxes to be less, so that the people may have more.” — Calvin Coolidge

85. “The business of America is business, and the chief ideal of the American people is idealism.” — Calvin Coolidge

86. “The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there; and to each is due not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.” — Calvin Coolidge

87. “Some people are suffering from lack of work, some from lack of water, many more from lack of wisdom.” — Calvin Coolidge

88. “Advertising is the life of trade.” — Calvin Coolidge

89. “They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.” — Calvin Coolidge

90. “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” — Calvin Coolidge

91. “To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” — Calvin Coolidge

92. “We do not need to import any foreign economic ideas or any foreign government. We had better stick to the American brand of government, the American brand of equality, and the American brand of wages. America had better stay American.” — Calvin Coolidge

93. “Men do not make laws. They do but discover them.” — Calvin Coolidge

94. “I think the American public wants a solemn ass as a president, and I think I’ll go along with them.” — Calvin Coolidge

95. “American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.” — Calvin Coolidge

96. “The benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all.” — Calvin Coolidge

97. “Realizing that we cannot live unto ourselves alone, we have contributed our resources and our counsel to the relief of the suffering and the settlement of the disputes among the European nations. Because of what America is and what America has done, a firmer courage, a higher hope, inspires the heart of all humanity.” — Calvin Coolidge

98. “Whatever was grand and beautiful in form and color attracted her.” — Calvin Coolidge

99. “Baseball is our national game.” — Calvin Coolidge

100. “We need not concern ourselves much about rights of property if we faithfully observe the rights of persons.” — Calvin Coolidge

101. “The end would be the destruction of all progress.” — Calvin Coolidge

102. “There’s more, much more, to Christmas than candlelight and cheer. It’s the spirit of sweet friendship that brightens all year. It’s thoughtfulness and kindness. It’s hope reborn again, for peace, for understanding, and for goodwill to men!” — Calvin Coolidge

103. “The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until someone is asked to pay the bill. If we are to have a billion dollars of navy, half a billion of farm relief, the people will have to furnish more revenue by paying more taxes. It is for them, through their Congress, to decide how far they wish to go.” — Calvin Coolidge

104. “The world is full of educated derelicts.” — Calvin Coolidge

105. “Civilization and profit go hand in hand.” — Calvin Coolidge

106. “These things do not happen by chance. There is much less luck in public affairs than some suppose.” — Calvin Coolidge

107. “This country would not be a land of opportunity, America could not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies.” — Calvin Coolidge

108. “Nobody will ever forget what I’ve accomplished.” — Calvin Coolidge

109. “There is only one form of political strategy in which I have any confidence, and that is to try to do the right thing and sometimes be able to succeed.” — Calvin Coolidge

110. “There was a touch of mysticism and poetry in her nature which made her love to gaze at the purple sunsets and watch the evening stars.” — Calvin Coolidge

111. “The more I see of life, the more I am convinced of the wisdom of that observation.” — Calvin Coolidge

112. “It has been my observation in life that, if one will only exercise the patience to wait, his wants are likely to be filled.” — Calvin Coolidge

113. “It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.” — Calvin Coolidge

114. “It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother. I cannot describe mine.” — Calvin Coolidge

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