Quotes from Calvin Coolidge

You don't have to explain something you haven't said.

IT is a very old saying that you never can tell what you can do until you try. The more I see of life the more I am convinced of the wisdom of that observation.

Well, they're going to elect that Superman 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. [To his Secret Service man, Edmund Starling]

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.

The words of the President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately. It would be exceedingly easy to set the country all by the ears and foment hatreds and jealousies, which, by destroying faith and confidence, would help nobody and harm everybody. The end would be the destruction of all progress.

Economy is idealism in its most practical form.

It has been my observation in life that, if one will only exercise the patience to wait, his wants are likely to be filled.

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good. The country is better off tranquilly considering its blessings and merits, and earnestly striving to secure more of them, than it would be in nursing hostile bitterness about its deficiencies and faults.

Chapter 95 Fairfield, Connecticut – May 8, 2015 "No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

It seems impossible that any man could adequately describe his mother. I cannot describe mine.

The world is full of educated derelicts

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort and effort means work.

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.

Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity. This is by no means a doctrine of parsimony. Both men and nations should live in accordance with their means and devote their substance not only to productive industry, but to the creation of the various forms of beauty and the pursuit of culture which give adornments to the art of life.

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.

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

I have never been hurt by what I have not said.

Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

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

But this does not detract from the wisdom of his faith in the people and his constant insistence that they be left to manage their own affairs. His opposition to bureaucracy will bear careful analysis, and the country could stand a great deal more of its application. The trouble with us is that we talk about Jefferson but do not follow him. In his theory that the people should manage their government, and not be managed by it, he was everlastingly right.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.Genius will not; un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb.