Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933,) fully John Calvin Coolidge, was an American Republican statesman who served as the 13th U.S. president 1923–29. His administration is remembered mainly for establishing minimal government interference in business and commerce, summarized by his expression, “the business of America is business.” Although he presided over a decade of unparalleled growth, his term has become emblematic of the self-satisfied conservatism that helped precipitate the Great Depression.
Born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Coolidge first practiced law in Northampton, Massachusetts. He entered state politics as a Republican, was mayor of Northampton (1910–11,) state senator (1912–15,) state lieutenant governor (1919–21,) and governor (1919–20.) He gained national celebrity through a tough stand against a Boston police strike in 1919.
Elected vice president with Warren G. Harding, he succeeded to the presidency after Harding’s death (1923) and easily won a full term in 1924. Pro-business policies marked Coolidge’s administration. He committed to reducing income taxes and the national debt and was noted for his guiding principle of non-interference in foreign affairs, which culminated in the signing of the multilateral Kellogg-Briand Treaty of 1928. His policies encouraged the reckless stock market speculation of the late 1920s.
Coolidge announced his decision not to stand for re-election in 1928 with a terse announcement that has since become a catchphrase: “I do not choose to run.” He spent the later years of his life writing his Autobiography (1929) and contributing articles to newspapers and magazines.
Coolidge destroyed most of his private papers and remains enigmatic in essential ways. Although highly popular, he is known as a reserved and distant man.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Calvin Coolidge
Look well to the hearthstone; therein all hope for America lies.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Home
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
Topics: Education
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
Topics: Wisdom
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Happiness, Contentment, One Step at a Time, Action, Responsibility
The two great political parties of the nation have existed for the purpose, each in accordance with its own principles, of undertaking to serve the interests of the whole nation. Their members of the Congress are chosen with that great end in view.
—Calvin Coolidge
No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace or insure it victory in time of war.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Nation
When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Work
It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Religion
We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Prophecy, Vision
The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
—Calvin Coolidge
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.
—Calvin Coolidge
The Constitution is the sole source and guaranty of national freedom.
—Calvin Coolidge
Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Progress, Goodness
There is no dignity quite so impressive and no independence quite so important as living within your means.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Money
You can’t know too much, but you can say too much.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Knowledge
I have never been hurt by what I have not said.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Words
As we turn through the pages of the press and the periodicals, as we catch the flash of billboards along the railroads and the highways, all of which have become enormous vehicles of the advertising art, I doubt if we realize at all the impressive part that these displays are coming more and more to play in modern life…
We see that basically it is that of education…It makes new thoughts, new desires, new actions…Rightfully applied, it is the method by which desire is created for better things. Desire, in turn, is the crucial element separating the civilized from the uncivilized. The uncivilized make little progress because they have few desires. The inhabitants of our country are stimulated to new wants in all directions. In order to satisfy their constantly increasing desires, they necessarily expand their productive powers. They create more wealth because it is only by that method that they can satisfy their wants. It is this constantly enlarging circle that represents the increasing circle of civilization.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Advertising
If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Failure, Progress
One with the law is a majority.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Law
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
Topics: Business, Service
Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Taxes
All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Growth, Work
Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Presidency
What we need in appointive positions are men of knowledge and experience with sufficient character to resist temptations.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Politics
Dream what you dare to dream. Go where you want to go. Be what you want to be.
—Calvin Coolidge
The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Vision
Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance. They have no legitimate complaint against anyone but themselves.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Risk, Luck, Chance, Fortune
I guess I am not naturally energetic. I like to sit around and talk.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Energy
To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.
—Calvin Coolidge
Our Government is a government by political parties under the guiding influence of public opinion. There does not seem to be any other method by which a republic can function.
—Calvin Coolidge
Topics: Politics
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