Calvin Coolidge Speaks

Silent Calvin Coolidge is not silent in his autobiography published in 1929. The following excerpts speak both to the American people and our present President. The breakdown of our moral culture in and out of Washington cannot be denied. The solution to our problems lies in unlocking the disciplined and righteous example of Coolidge’s life, ideas and words.

“If attendance on these religious services ever harmed any of the men of my time I have never been informed of it. The good it did I believe was infinite. It broke down selfishness, it conquered resistance, it supplanted impulse, and finally it enthroned reason.”

“Unless we live rationally we perish, physically, mentally, spiritually.“

“Nothing is more dangerous to good government than great power in improper hands.”

“It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man. When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.”

“Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.”

“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.”

(As President) “it is not sufficient to entrust details to some one else. They must be entrusted to some one who is competent.”

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