Top 200 Calvin Coolidge Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “You can’t increase prosperity by taxing success.”

— Calvin Coolidge

52. “The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential.”

— Calvin Coolidge

53. “Freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort.”

— Calvin Coolidge

54. “The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization.”

— Calvin Coolidge

55. “A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.”

— Calvin Coolidge

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

— Calvin Coolidge

57. “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

58. “Don’t hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don’t hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table.”

— Calvin Coolidge

59. “There is no surer road to destruction than prosperity without character.”

— Calvin Coolidge

60. “I am for economy. After that I am for more economy. At this time and under present conditions that is my conception of serving all the people.”

— Calvin Coolidge

61. “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

62. “All growth depends upon activity.”

— Calvin Coolidge

63. “Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.”

— Calvin Coolidge

64. “Whenever I indulge my sense of humor, it gets me into trouble.”

— Calvin Coolidge

65. “Wherever we look, the work of the chemist has raised the level of our civilization and has increased the productive capacity of the nation.”

— Calvin Coolidge

66. “I did not see the sense in chasing a little white ball around a field.”

— Calvin Coolidge

67. “Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.”

— Calvin Coolidge

68. “There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes.”

— Calvin Coolidge

69. “Human nature provides sufficient distrust of all that is alien, so that there is no need of any artificial supply.”

— Calvin Coolidge

70. “Industry cannot flourish if labor languish.”

— Calvin Coolidge

71. “The fundamental precept of liberty is toleration.”

— Calvin Coolidge

72. “Men do not make laws. They do but discover them.”

— Calvin Coolidge

73. “What we need in appointive positions is men of knowledge and experience who have sufficient character to resist temptations.”

— Calvin Coolidge

74. “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government, and more for themselves.”

— Calvin Coolidge

75. “Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.”

— Calvin Coolidge

76. “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.”

— Calvin Coolidge

77. “One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.”

— Calvin Coolidge

78. “Character is the only secure foundation of the state.”

— Calvin Coolidge

79. “Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.”

— Calvin Coolidge

80. “Education should be the handmaid of citizenship.”

— Calvin Coolidge

81. “American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.”

— Calvin Coolidge

82. “When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.”

— Calvin Coolidge

83. “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”

— Calvin Coolidge

84. “Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.”

— Calvin Coolidge

85. “I have never been hurt by what I have not said.”

— Calvin Coolidge

86. “One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American people is economy in government.”

— Calvin Coolidge

87. “It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.”

— Calvin Coolidge

88. “It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man.”

— Calvin Coolidge

89. “Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.”

— Calvin Coolidge

90. “History reveals no civilized people among whom there was not a highly educated class and large aggregations of wealth. Large profits mean large payrolls.”

— Calvin Coolidge

91. “The strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions.”

— Calvin Coolidge

92. “I guess I am not naturally energetic. I like to sit around and talk.”

— Calvin Coolidge

93. “War is the rule of force, and peace is the reign of law.”

— Calvin Coolidge

94. “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

95. “Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.”

— Calvin Coolidge

96. “I always figured the American public wanted a solemn ass for president, so I went along with them.”

— Calvin Coolidge

97. “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

98. “Everyone has an influence on public affairs if he will take the trouble to exert it.”

— Calvin Coolidge

99. “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

100. “Why don’t we just buy one airplane and let the pilots take turns flying it.”

— Calvin Coolidge