Calvin Coolidge Quotes

As the title clearly suggests, the article contains Calvin Coolidge quotes. Born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth, Vermont, Coolidge served as president of the United States from 1923-1928.

“Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield and Equinox without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. 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 everlasting hills.” – Calvin Coolidge

“For almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces.” – Calvin Coolidge Quote about Grace Coolidge, His Wife

“… it is fitting that the humane sentiment of mankind should be given expression and form by thought and action for the protection and comfort of their best friends and natural comrades, the dog, the horse, the beast of burden, and their kind in the animal world.” – Calvin Coolidge on Animal Protection

“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

“… liberty can only be secured by obedience to law.” – Calvin Coolidge

“If we are too weak to take charge of our own mortality, we shall not be strong enough to take charge of our own liberty.” – Calvin Coolidge

“The ultimate decision of all questions of law and justice rests with the people themselves. They have the complete authority to enlarge or diminish, to support or to overthrow.” – Calvin Coolidge

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

“If freedom and equality are not to be maintained, then there must be servitude and class distinction. If all the people are not to be permitted to rule, then there must be a rule of a part of the people. If there is not to be self-government, there must be some form of despotic government. If the individual is not to have the dollar which he himself earns, then he must be forced to hand it over to some one who has not earned it.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Civilization is the bearer of great gifts, the source of ever-enlarging opportunity. It is not the result of a self-existing plenty, but rather the product of a high endeavor. It does not rob life of all that is noble, but inspires it to all that is heroic.” – Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge Quote: Vermont is the State I Love (A)

Calvin Coolidge Quote: My Wife Bore My Infirmities

“Private initiative will be stimulated. Self-reliance and self-control will be increased. Society will remain a living organism sustaining hope and progress, content to extend its dominion not by conquest but by service. Such is the system of self-government, the orderly rule of the people, carrying within itself a remedy for its own disorders and the power of self-perpetuation.” – Calvin Coolidge

“There can be no basis for society on the theory that a person may claim the protection of the laws and yet refuse all obedience to the laws.” – Calvin Coolidge

“… the flag of America… [in] certain fundamental principles it represents, there can be no advance for there is no beyond. It is the flag of a people who have arrived. It must be the flag who have the determination to remain. It stands for order and liberty, for freedom of the human hand and the human mind, free speech, free press, free church; it means that property and life and honor shall be inviolate, and it recognizes the duty of the people to protect each other in the security of these rights, and that all experience and all reason demonstrate that the sole source of such protection is in government according to law.” – Calvin Coolidge about the Stars and Stripes

“Whatever perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the nation remains secure in the knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an adequate defense and protection.” – Calvin Coolidge

“We need to learn and exemplify the principle of toleration. We are a nation of many races and of many beliefs. The freedom of the human mind does not mean the mere privilege of agreeing with others, it means the right of individual judgment. This right our government undertakes to guarantee to all without regard and without punishment to any for following the dictates of their own consciences. It is on this principle that speech is free, the press is free, and religion is free.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Civilization and freedom have come because they are an achievement, and it is human nature to achieve. Nothing else gives any permanent satisfaction. But most of all there is need of religion. From that source alone came freedom.” – Calvin Coolidge

“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

“… the Stars and Stripes remain. It pictures the vision of a people whose eyes were turned to the rising dawn. It represents the hope of a father for his posterity. It was never flaunted for the glory of royalty, but to be born under it is to be a child of a king, and to establish a home under it is to be the founder of a royal house.” – Calvin Coolidge

“The time has arrived for saving by the people in order… that there may be a deeper realization that extravagance is wrong and that thrift is right.” – Calvin Coolidge

“I know very well what it means to awake in the night and realize that the rent is coming due, wondering where the money is coming from with which to pay it. The only way I know of escape from that constant tragedy is to keep expenses low enough so that something may be saved to meet the day when earnings may be small.” – Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge Quote: Claiming Protection from Law Require Obedience to Laws

Calvin Coolidge Quote: On Savings and Extravagance

“The first duty of our government to its own citizens and foreigners within its borders is the preservation of order. Unless and until that duty is met, a government is not even eligible for recognition among the family of nations.” – Calvin Coolidge

“The journalism of the United States… ought to contest with our universities as an influence for education and match the pulpit in its support of high moral standards.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Where the press is free, as it is in our country under the guaranties of the National and State Constitutions, it has a reciprocal duty… of giving true reports to the people of the actions of public officials. To do otherwise would be to establish a petty tyranny of its own.” – Calvin Coolidge

“By being servants of the truth, you can help to create and support that confidence in our institutions, and in each other, which is the foundation of national progress and prosperity.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Peace and prosperity are not finalities; they are only methods. It is too easy under their influence for a nation to become selfish and degenerate.” – Calvin Coolidge

“If coming generations are to maintain a like spirit, it will be because they continue to study the lives and times of the great men who have been the leaders in our history, and continue to support the principles which those men represented.” – Calvin Coolidge

“This memorial [Mount Rushmore] will be another national shrine to which future generations will repair to declare their continuing allegiance to independence, to self-government, to freedom and to economic justice.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Our doctrine of equality and liberty and humanity comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man, through the fatherhood of God.” – Calvin Coolidge

“The right to fair treatment is as wide as humanity.” – Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge Quote: The First Duty of Government

Calvin Coolidge Quote: The Press - Freedom and Duty

“There is no greater service that we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the freedom of our own citizens.” – Calvin Coolidge

“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.” –  Calvin Coolidge

“Particularly has it been delightful to have him refer to his airplane as somehow possessing a personality and being equally entitled to credit with himself, for we are proud that in every particular this silent partner represented American genius and industry.” – Calvin Coolidge Quotes about Charles Lindbergh and His Historic Flight from New York to Paris using “The Spirit of St. Louis”

“No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had 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 worshiped.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Men struggle for material success because that is the path, the process, to the development of character. We ought to demand economic justice, but most of all because it is justice. We must forever realize that material rewards are limited and in a sense, they are only incidental, but the development of character is unlimited and is the only essential. The measure of success is not the quantity of merchandise, but the quality of manhood which is produced.” – Calvin Coolidge

“In its economic life… the American conception that the only limit to profits and wages is production, which is the doctrine of optimism and hope because it leads to prosperity.” – Calvin Coolidge

“No matter how it is disguised, the moment the Government engages in buying and selling, by that act it is fixing prices.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Although Edison belongs to the world, the United States takes pride in the thought that his rise from humble beginnings and his unceasing struggle to overcome the obstacles on the road to success well illustrate the spirit of our country.” – Calvin Coolidge Quote about Thomas Edison

“… putting the government directly into business subsidies, and price fixing, and the alluring promises of political action as a substitute for private initiative, should be avoided.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Wherever there is the genuine, there will be some counterfeits.” – Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge Quote: No Greater Service for the Oppressed

Calvin Coolidge Quote: First Things First - The Declaration of Independence

“Men become perfect themselves by the perfection of the objects about them. That foremost admonition, given in Eden, that the earth should be replenished and subdued, was not given to the last creation of Great Nature as a penance, but to point out the way to a more abundant life.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Life is made up of the successful and the worthy. In any candid representation of current conditions, they have the first claim to attention.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Security and order are our most valuable possessions. They are cheap at any price.” – Calvin Coolidge

“One with the law is a majority.” – Calvin Coolidge

“If more freedom is desired, it can be had by more obedience.  If there is need of more brotherhood, it will be found in more service.  If success be sought, the way lies open through thrift and industry.  If character is wanted, it can be created by hard work and kind deeds.  This is the substance of which America has been built.” – Calvin Coolidge

“There is an obligation to forgive but it does not extend to the unrepentant. To give them aid and comfort is to support their evil doing and to become what is known in law as an accessory after the fact. A government which does that is a reproach to civilization and will soon have on its hands the blood of its citizens.” – Calvin Coolidge

“When each citizen submits himself to the authority of law he does not thereby decrease his independence or freedom, but rather increases it. By recognizing that he is a part of a larger body which is banded together for a common purpose, he becomes more than an individual, he rises to a new dignity of citizenship. Instead of finding himself restricted and confined by rendering obedience to public law, he finds himself protected and defended and in the exercise of increased and increasing rights.” – Calvin Coolidge

“It is only by surrendering a certain amount of our liberty, only by taking on new duties and assuming new obligations, that we make that progress which we characterize as civilization. It is only in like manner that the citizens and the States can maintain our Federal Union and become partakers of its glory.” – Calvin Coolidge

“American citizenship is a high estate. It has been secured only by untold toil and effort. It will be maintained by no other method. It demands the best that men and women have to give. But it likewise awards to its partakers the best that there is on earth.” – Calvin Coolidge

“Public service, from the action of the humblest voter to the most exalted office, cannot be made a mere matter of hire and salary. The supporters of our institutions must be inspired by a more dominant motive than a conviction that their actions are going to be profitable. We cannot lower our standards to what we think will pay, but we must raise them to what we think is right.” – Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge Quote: Vermont is the State I Love (B) / Image: State of Vermont