Interesting quotes from an unlikely/unsung source

[daveleau]

Honest poverty is one thing, but lack of industry and character is another.

The people cannot look to legislation generally for success

If we give the best that is in us to our private affairs we shall have little need of government aid.

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

Courts are established, not to determine the popularity of a cause, but to adjudicate and enforce rights.

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.

Our first duty is to ourselves. American standards must be maintained. American institutions must be preserved

The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.

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.

Accumulated wealth will be of very little value to society unless it voluntarily comes to the rescue in time to prevent public suffering.

It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan.

We have had too much government action, with attendant publicity, proposing to cure human illness which no government can cure and too much public opposition when there was nothing to oppose.

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These were all by Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president.


He is often called one of our worst presidents. But he is being reevaluated by many historians and is being seen in a new light. Some go as far as to call him a raving success and the person who attempted to foster our Founding Father's idea of limited government.

http://www.calvin-coolidge.org/pages...ch/quotes.html

[SiliconJon]

Well, there's something I did not have the slightest inkling to. A very wise man, indeed (at least, going by these quotes alone, and not knowing how much he truely stood by them in his actions). But those aren't generally the words of a two faced liar.

I will have to get a book on him to read this Sunday.

And all my quotes would be from musical artists...so I'll wait until I can find a more upright brigade to quote from.

[daveleau]

Therea re two book that are both out of print that were written on him in the recent couple of decades. Botha re reviewed as biased on way or the other, but you have a choice to your bias. One is said to be pro-Coolidge and the other is the normal run-of-the-mill anti-Coolidge.

Ronald Reagan, known to like an afternoon nap, made a stab at rehabilitating the most notorious presidential napper of all, Calvin Coolidge, by praising him and hanging his portrait in a conspicuous place in the White House. In Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President, Donald R. McCoy credits the Vermont native and former Massachusetts governor with being an able if unremarkable administrator. In the most recent biography, Coolidge: An American Enigma, Robert Sobel ups the ante and stretches the imagination in an attempt to portray Coolidge as a warm family man, despite his outward appearance as a stern, frosty New Englander.

http://www.bookmagazine.com/issue12/biography.shtml