calvin-coolidge Quotes About government

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

Government President Achievement Minding Your Own Business Press Conference

“Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberality, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government. 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. The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of law for the virtue of man. Of course we endeavor to restrain the vicious, and furnish a fair degree of security and protection by legislation and police control, but the real reform which society in these days is seeking will come as a result of our religious convictions, or they will not come at all. Peace, justice, humanity, charity—these cannot be legislated into being. They are the result of divine grace.”

Government Religion

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“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. 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 the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.”

Government Liberty United States Rights Progress Equality Inalienable

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“Self-government means self support.”

Mean Self Government Support Self-government Self Support

Book:The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century

Source: The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century

“We insist on producing a farm surplus, but think the government should find a profitable market for it. We overindulge in speculation, but ask the government to prevent panics. Now the only way to hold the government entirely responsible for conditions is to give up our liberty for a dictatorship. If we continue the more reasonable practice of managing our own affairs we must bear the burdens of our own mistakes. A free people cannot shift their responsibility for them to the government. Self-government means self-reliance.”

Source: Calvin Coolidge says: dispatches written by former-president Coolidge and syndicated to newspapers in 1930-1931 : gathered for issuance in book form on the one-hundredth anniversary of Mr. Coolidge's birth, 4 July 1972

“Coincident with the right of individual property under the provisions of our Government is the right of individual property. . . . When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry. Any other conclusion would necessarily imply either privilege or servitude.”

Government Individual Liberty Industry Property Rewards Privilege Conclusion Entitled Provision Servitude Liberty And Equality

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“If there is to be responsible party government, the party label must be something more than a mere device for securing office. Unless those who are elected under the same party designation are willing to assume sufficient responsibility and exhibit sufficient loyalty and coherence, so that they can cooperate with each other in the support of the broad general principles, of the party platform, the election is merely a mockery, no decision is made at the polls, and there is no representation of the popular will.”

“The doctrine of the Declaration of Independence predicated upon the glory of man and the corresponding duty to society that the rights of citizens ought to be protected with every power and resource of the state, and a government that does any less is false to the teachings of that great document - false to the name American.”

Men Doe States Government Names Rights Teaching Duty Ought Citizens Glory Resources Independence Doctrine Protected Documents Declaration Declaration Of Independence Corresponding

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“I think the American public wants a solemn ass as a president, and I think I'll go along with them.”

Thinking Want Government America President Ass Solemn

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of the law for the virtues of men.”

Men Way Country Government Law Virtue Authority Substitutes Get Ahead

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“The final solution for unemployment is work.”

Government Solutions Finals Unemployment

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“Governments are necessarily continuing concerns. They have to keep going in good times and in bad. They therefore need a wide margin of safety. If taxes and debt are made all the people can bear when times are good, there will be certain disaster when times are bad.”

People Ifs Needs Made Government Certain Bears Taxes Concern Safety Debt Wide Disaster Good Times Keep Going Continuing Margins

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“There are always those who are willing to surrender local self-government and turn over their affairs to some national authority in exchange for a payment of money out of the Federal Treasury. Whenever they find some abuse needs correction in their neighborhood, instead of applying the remedy themselves they seek to have a tribunal sent on from Washington to discharge their duties for them, regardless of the fact that in accepting such supervision they are bartering away their freedom.”

“There has been abroad many times some criticism of our Government, of our people, and our ways, but that has demonstrated, I think, that when they are in real trouble and real difficulty over there, they turn to us as a nation that will be fair with them--one in whose judgment and in whose character they can rely; and that not withstanding differences that have seemed to exist, they are willing to abide by the faith that they have in us, and I think that is a very substantial accomplishment.”

People Thinking Way Has Beens Real Character Government Turns Nations Differences Trouble Willing Pride Judgment Fairs Criticism Difficulty Accomplishment Rely Patriotism Withstanding

Author:Calvin Coolidge

“Our domestic problems are for the most part economic. We have our enormous debt to pay, and we are paying it. We have the high cost of government to diminish, and we are diminishing it. We have a heavy burden of taxation to reduce, and we are reducing it. But while remarkable progress has been made in these directions, the work is yet far from accomplished.”

Source: Message of the President of the United States to the Congress at the Beginning of the Second Session of the Sixty-eighth Congress, December 3 1924

“Good government cannot be found on the bargain-counter. We have seen samples of bargain-counter government in the past when low tax rates were secured by increasing the bonded debt for current expenses or refusing to keep our institutions up to the standard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and accommodations. I refuse, and the Republican Party refuses, to endorse that method of sham and shoddy economy.”