Wages
“The greater the profit, the greater the wages.”
Source: “Plymouth, Labor Day,” on September 1, 1919. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“Those who do only what they are paid for will never be paid very much.”
Source: Calvin Coolidge Says, August 1, 1930.
War
“The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.”
Source: “Somerville Republican City Committee,” on August 7, 1918. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
Washington
“It is necessary to watch people in Washington all the time to keep them from unnecessary expenditure of money. They have all lived off the national Government so long in that city that they are inclined to regard any sort of employment as a Christmas tree, and if we are not careful, they will run up a big expense bill on us.”
Source: The Real Calvin Coolidge, p. 136.
Washington Senators
“As the head of an enterprise which transacts some business and maintains a considerable staff in this town, I have a double satisfaction in welcoming home the victorious Washington baseball team. First, you bring the laurels from one of the hardest-fought contests in the history of the national game. Second, I feel hopeful that, with the happy result now assured, it will be possible for the people of Washington gradually to resume interest in the ordinary concerns of life.
“So long as we could be satisfied with a prompt report of the score by innings a reasonable attention to business was still possible. But when the entire population reached the point of requiring the game to be described play by play, I began to doubt whether the highest efficiency was being promoted. I contemplated action of a vigorously disciplinary character, but the outcome makes it impossible. As a result, we are a somewhat demoralized community — but exceedingly happy over it.”
Source: “Welcoming Home The Winning Baseball Team,” on October 1, 1924.
Wealth
“. . . there is the same right to disperse unlawful assembling of wealth or power that there is to disperse a mob that has met to lynch or riot. But that principle does not denounce town-meetings or prayer-meetings.”
Source: “Associated Industries Dinner,” on December 15, 1916. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“Accumulated wealth will be of very little value to society unless it voluntarily comes to the rescue in time to prevent public suffering”
Source: Calvin Coolidge Says, October 10, 1930.
Wealth, Distribution of
“Our country is an exceedingly good example of the fact that if production be encouraged and increased, then distribution fairly well takes care of itself. Other countries, by their actions in stopping production, in penalizing industry and economy, and rewarding indolence and extravagance, have been able to bring about a very general and equal distribution of misery, but no other country ever approached ours in the equal and general distribution of prosperity.”
Source: “The Things That Are Unseen,” on June 19, 1923. As found in The Price of Freedom.
Whittling
“I mentioned the other day that any reports about what I was going to do when I finished being President were made entirely without consultation with me. I forgot to mention one report that is going around. I mention it now because I don’t want to be accused of acquiring property under false pretenses. I am having sent to me quite a number of jackknives. I don’t recall that I ever made any suggestion that after I finished my term of office I was going to engage in the occupation of whittling. I did some when I was a boy. I haven’t applied myself to that for a good many years. I hesitate to spoil anything like a good newspaper story, but, as I say, I don’t want to keep getting jackknives under false pretenses.”
Source: “Press Conference,” on December 20, 1927.
Women
“What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told.”
Source: Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, p. 44.
“Men build monuments above the graves of their heroes to mark the end of a great life, but women seek out the birthplace and build their shrine, not where a great life had its ending but where it had its beginning, seeking with a truer instinct the common source of things not in that which is gone forever but in that which they know will again be manifest.”
Source: “Theodore Roosevelt” on January 23, 1921. As found in The Price of Freedom.
“A woman is essentially a conservative. She wants to assure to the last degree protection for her children.”
Source: Meet Calvin Coolidge, p. 178.
Work
“Work is not a curse, it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization. Savages do not work. The growth of a sentiment that despises work is an appeal from civilization to barbarism.”
Source: “Amherst College Alumni Association,” on February 4, 1916. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“One of the earliest mandates laid on the human race was to subdue the earth. That meant work.”
Source: Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, p. 68.
“The growth of a sentiment that despises work is an appeal from civilization to barbarism.”
Source: “Amherst College Alumni Association,” on February 4, 1916. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“I don’t work at night. If a man can’t finish his job in the day time he’s not smart.”
Source: Meet Calvin Coolidge, p. 77.
“One of the great mysteries in the world is the success that lies in conscientious work.”
Source: Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, p. 100.
“It is not dissatisfaction with our work but dissatisfaction with ourselves that is the cause of the unrest and discomfort which is always manifesting itself in one form or another. We think we want to change our employment, when we really want to change ourselves.”
Source: Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, p. 387.
“I cannot think of anything that represents the American people as a whole so adequately as honest work. We perform different tasks, but the spirit is the same. We are proud of work and ashamed of idleness. With us there is no task which is menial, no service which is degrading. All work is ennobling and all workers are ennobled.”
Source: “The High Place Of Labor,” on September 1, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“America recognizes no aristocracy save those who work. The badge of service is the sole requirement for admission to the ranks of our nobility.
Source: “The High Place Of Labor,” on September 1, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
Worship
“Men show by what they worship what they are.”
Source: “Lincoln Day Proclamation,” on January 30, 1919. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.”
Source: “Great Virginians,” on July 6, 1922. As found in The Price of Freedom.
Writing
“I am not conscious of having any particular style about my writings. If I have any, it is undoubtedly due to my training in the construction of legal papers, where it is necessary in the framing of a contract, or the drawing of a pleading, to say what you mean and mean what you say in terms sufficiently clear and concise so that your adversary will not be able to misinterpret them, or to divert the trial into a discussion of unimportant matters. The rule is to state the case with as little diffusion as possible.”
Source: Letter to Charles Willis Thompson, on December 29, 1924. As found in Calvin Coolidge: Man From Vermont, p. 295.
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