Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Calvin Coolidge
391 quotes
“[Speaking of Chinese president Sun Yat-sen] ...combined Benjamin Franklin and George Washington of China.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wherever we look, the work of the chemist has raised the level of our civilization and has increased the productive capacity of our nation.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Sid Meier's Civilization V (2010).
“Well, they’re going to elect that Stupid Hoover, and he’s going to have some trouble. He’s going to have to spend money, but it won’t be enough. Then the Democrats will come in. But they don’t know anything about money.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Secret Service agent Edmund Starling, as quoted in The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself (2014), by James Grant
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (6 September 1910) to his father, John Coolidge, who had been elected to the Vermont State Senate; in Your Son Calvin Coolidge, as cited in Silent Cal’s Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin C…
“Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its form of government which has the aptest instruments for the discovery of law.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Massachusetts State Senate (7 January 1914).
“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 (1872–1933) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From 'Address at Holy Cross' (25 June 1919), published in Have Faith In Massachusetts: A Collection of Speeches and Messages (2nd Ed.), Coolidge, Houghton Mifflin, p. 231.
“Workmen's compensation, hours and conditions of labor are cold consolations, if there be no employment.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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.
“There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Telegram to AFL president Samuel Gompers (14 September 1919); concerning the 1919 Boston Police strike.
“There is no substitute for a militant freedom. The only alternative is submission and slavery.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses, Coolidge, The Minerva Group (2001), p. 159
“To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message to the National Security League in honor of Constitution Day, quoted in New York Times (17 September 1923) "Ceremonies Mark Constitution Day".
“Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Adequate Brevity, page 50 (January 1, 1924).
“Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination (August 14, 1924).
“The Constitution is the sole source and guaranty of national freedom.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address accepting nomination as Republican candidate for president, Washington, D.C. (4 August 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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From his formal acceptance of the Republican party’s nomination for President (14 August 1924), as quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma (1998), by Robert Sobel, Regnery Publishing, p. 292. , 9780895264107-->
“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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Coolidge's Inaugural Address (4 March 1925).
“What we need is not more Federal government, but better local government.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at Arlington National Cemetery (30 May 1925), in Foundations of the Republic (1926), Coolidge, Ayer Publishing, p. 228.
“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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As recounted by Herbert Hoover ; from Coolidge: An American Enigma, Robert Sobel, Regnery Publishing (2000), p. 242 : , 9780895262479
“I do not choose to run for President in 1928.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to reporters (2 August 1927); cited in Bartlett's Famous Quotations, 16th ed. (1992).
“For some reason I was attracted to civil government and took that. This was my first introduction to the Constitution of the United States. Although I was but thirteen years old the subject interested me exceedingly. The study of it which I then began has never ceased, and the more I study it 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. The good it has wrought can never be measured.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1929), p. 40.
“It is not industry, but idleness, that is degrading.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1929), p. 68.
“When people not accustomed to Washington came to the office, or when I met them on some special occasion, they often remarked that it seemed to be my busy day, to which my stock reply came to be that all days were busy and there was little difference among them.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1929), p. 200.
“That man has offered me unsolicited advice for six years, all of it bad!”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Herbert Hoover, as quoted in "Lords of Finance" (2011), by Liaquat Ahamed, Random House, p. 299.
“The words of a President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Coolidge: An American Enigma (1998), by Robert Sobel, Regnery Publishing, p. 243. , 9780895264107-->
“I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President and I think I will go along with them.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Ethel Barrymore, as quoted in Greenberg, David (2006). Calvin Coolidge. The American Presidents Series. Times Books. , p. 60.
“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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Manuscripts: speeches and messages of Calvin Coolidge, 1895–1924, the Massachusetts State Library, George Fingold Library, Boston.
“We revere that day because it marks the beginnings of independence, the beginnings of a constitution that was finally to give universal freedom and equality to all American citizens — the beginnings of a government that was to recognize beyond all others the power and worth and dignity of man. There began the first of governments to acknowledge that it was founded on the sovereignty of the people. There the world first beheld the revelation of modern democracy.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“America has many glories. The last one that she would wish to surrender is the glory of the men who have served her in war. While such devotion lives, the nation is secure. Whatever dangers may threaten from within or without, she can view them calmly. Turning to her veterans, she can say: 'These are our defenders. They are invincible. In them is our safety.'.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His mortal frame has vanished, but his spirit increases with the increasing years the richest legacy of the greatest century. Men show by what they worship what they are. It is no accident that before the great example of American manhood, our people stand with respect and reverence. In Abraham Lincoln is revealed our ideal; the hope of our country fulfilled. He was the incarnation of what America was to be. Through him, the Almighty bestowed upon the nation a new birth of freedom that this dear land of ours might be returned to the health of its fathers.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is preeminently the province of government to protect the weak. The average citizen does not lead the life of independence that was his in former days under a less complex order of society. When a family tilled the soil and produced its own support it was independent. It may be infinitely better off now, but it is evident it needs a protection which before was not required.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let Massachusetts continue to regard with the greatest solicitude the well-being of her people. By prescribed law, by authorized publicity, by informed public opinion, let her continue to strive to provide that all conditions under which her citizens live are worthy of the highest faith of man. Healthful housing, wholesome food, sanitary working conditions, reasonable hours, a fair wage for a fair day's work, opportunity — full and free, justice — speedy and impartial, and at a cost within the reach of all, are among the objects not only to be sought, but made absolutely certain and secure.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Government is not, must not be, a cold, impersonal machine, but a human and more human agency: appealing to the reason, satisfying the heart, full of mercy, assisting the good, resisting the wrong, delivering the weak from any impositions of the powerful. This is not paternalism. It is not a servitude imposed from without, but the freedom of a right to self-direction from within.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Industry must be humanized, not destroyed. It must be the instrument not of selfishness, but of service. Change not the law, but the attitude of the mind. Let our citizens look not to the false prophet but to the pilgrims. Let them fix their eyes on Plymouth Rock as well as Beacon Hill. The supreme choice must be not to things that are seen, but to things that are unseen.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our government belongs to the people. Our property belongs to the people. It is distributed. They own it. The taxes are paid by the people. They bear the burden. The benefits of government must accrue to the people. Not to one class, but to all classes, to all the people. The functions, the power, the sovereignty of the government, must be kept where they have been placed by the Constitution and laws of the people. Not private will, but that public will, which speaks with a divine sanction, must prevail.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are strident voices, urging resistance to law in the name of freedom. They are not seeking freedom for themselves, they have it. They are seeking to enslave others. Their works are evil. They know it. They must be resisted. The evil they represent must be overcome by the good others represent. Their ideas, which are wrong, for the most part imported, must be supplanted by ideas which are right. This can be done. The meaning of America is a power which cannot be overcome. Massachusetts must lead in teaching it.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Laws are not manufactured. They are not imposed. They are rules of action existing from everlasting to everlasting. He who resists them, resists himself. He commits suicide. The nature of man requires sovereignty. Government must govern. To obey is life. To disobey is death. Organized government is the expression of the life of the commonwealth. Into your hands is entrusted the grave responsibility of its protection and perpetuation.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a self-evident truth that in a healthy community there is no place for the vicious, the weak of body, the shiftless, or the improvident. As Professor Sumner, of Yale, asserts in his book. The Forgotten Man, 'Every part of capital which is wasted on the vicious, the idle, and the shiftless, is so much taken from the capital available to reward the independent and productive laborer.'.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are in agreement with him in his conviction that the laborer must be protected 'against the burdens of the good-for-nothing'. We want no such additions to our population as those who prey upon our institutions or our property. America has, in the popular mind, been an asylum for those who have been driven from their homes in foreign countries because of various forms of political and religious oppression. But America can not afford to remain an asylum after such people have passed the portals and begun to share the privileges of our institutions.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These institutions have flourished by reason of a common background of experience; they have been perpetuated by a common faith in the righteousness of their purpose; they have been handed down undiminished in effectiveness from our forefathers who conceived their spirit and prepared the foundations. We have put into operation our faith in equal opportunity before the law in exchange for equal obligation of citizenship.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All native-born Americans, directly or indirectly, have the advantage of our schools, our colleges, and our religious bodies. It is our belief that America could not otherwise exist. Faith in mankind is in no wise inconsistent with a requirement for trained citizenship, both for men and women. No civilization can exist without a background—an active community of interest, a common aspiration—spiritual, social, and economic. It is a duty our country owes itself to require of all those aliens who come here that they have a background not inconsistent with American institutions.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Generally, and under normal conditions, people turn to America when there is something that attracts them, when they can find here an opportunity. If such an opportunity no longer exists, they do not come. Should this country experience a period of economic depression, the natural working of this law would be that many classes of unskilled labor—especially those who come here temporarily, expecting to return once they have accumulated sufficient money—would, of their own accord, leave the country.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laws of supply and demand, therefore, are adjuncts to immigration regulation. I do not fear the arrival of as many immigrants a year as shipping conditions or passport requirements can handle, provided they are of good character. But there is no room for the alien who turns toward America with the avowed intention of opposing government, with a set desire to teach destruction of government— which means not only enmity toward organized society, but toward every form of religion and so basic an institution as the home.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From its very beginning our country has been enriched by a complete blend of varied strains in the same ethnic family. We are, in some sense, an immigrant nation, molded in the fires of a common experience. That common experience is our history. And it is that common experience we must hand down to our children, even as the fundamental principles of Americanism, based on righteousness, were handed down to us, in perpetuity, by the founders of our government.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For, primarily, the immigrant comes here for economic reasons. If he is a dependent, there is no room for him. If he believes that in America one need not work, there is no room for him. If he has been taught that his labor is a commodity for sale, he must learn that labor is no more a commodity than management. It is the product of labor, the product of management, that is put up for sale. In the last analysis, it is man's intelligence that is purchased. Only in undeveloped countries can man be regarded as a beast of burden.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is ample work for all in this country provided all will work. The problem of unemployment is aggravated, not wholly by the alien knocking at our gate, but by the laborer at home slamming the door of production behind him and walking out. Stopping industry will not right the matter. And in the last analysis it is the earnings of industry, which on the average are only fair, that provide alike for wages and the increase of investment on which is the sole dependence of the advance of civilization.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These are points to consider when we put our house in order for the advancing hordes of aliens. Experience has taught us to have faith in the bulk of our people. The great decisions in American history have always been right. The heart of the nation is sound and must be kept sound. It is a characteristic of ours that we are ashamed not to be right. I believe that our present concern about immigration is a fear that we will not be able to protect ourselves and at the same time discharge our obligations.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Numbered among our population are some 12,000,000 colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and a private duty to protect those rights. The Congress ought to exercise all its powers of prevention and punishment against the hideous crime of lynching, of which the negroes are by no means the sole sufferers, but for which they furnish a majority of the victims.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the people of the United States, the death of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States from March 4, 1913, to March 4, 1921, which occurred at 11:15 o'clock today at his home at Washington, District of Columbia, deprives the country of a most distinguished citizen, and is an event which causes universal and genuine sorrow. To many of us it brings the sense of a profound personal bereavement.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source