Economy
“After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government.”
Source: “The Destiny Of America,” on May 30, 1923. As found in The Price of Freedom.
“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.”
Source: “Inaugural Address,” on March 4, 1925. As found in The Mind of the President.
“I believe not only in advocating economy in public expenditure, but in its practical application and actual accomplishment.”
Source: Calvin Coolidge of Northampton, p. 12.
“Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.”
Source: “Third Annual Message to Congress,” on December 8, 1925. As found in Messages and Papers of the Presidents.
“I am for economy. After that I am for more economy.”
Source: “Economy In The Interest Of All,” on June 30, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
Education
“There is an ever-increasing need for teachers who can inspire and lead. They are needed in the schools, in the pulpit, and in the editorial room. Education is the result of contact. A great people is produced by contact with great minds. The requirement for training under those who can see into the heart of things grows greater and greater. Too often the appeal is to weakness, not to strength.”
Source: “The Price of Freedom,” on January 21, 1923. As found in The Price of Freedom.
“My education began with a set of blocks which had on them the Roman numerals and the letters of the alphabet. It is not yet finished.”
Source: Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, p. 30.
“To live up to the full measure of citizenship in this nation requires not only action, but it requires intelligent action. It is necessary to secure information and to acquire education.”
Source: “The Duties of Citizenship,” on November 3, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“It needed but little contemplation to determine that the greatest obstacle to freedom was ignorance. If there was to be self-government, if there was to be popular sovereignty, if there was to be an almost unlimited privilege to vote and hold office, if the people were going to maintain themselves and administer their own political and social affairs, it was necessary as a purely practical matter that they should have a sufficiently trained and enlightened intelligence to accomplish that end. Popular government could only be predicated on popular education.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“For the most part our institutions are attacked in the name of social and economic reform. Unless there be some teaching of sound economics in the schools, the voter and taxpayer are in danger of accepting vague theories which lead only to social discontent and public disaster. The body politic has little chance of choosing patriotic officials who can administer its financial affairs with wisdom and safety, unless there is a general diffusion of knowledge and information on elementary economic subjects sufficient to create and adequately to support public opinion.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“When it is remembered that ignorance is the most fruitful source of poverty, vice, and crime, it is easy to realize the necessity for removing what is a menace, not only to our social well-being, but to the very existence of the Republic. A failure to meet this obligation registers a serious and inexcusable defect in our Government.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“We are able to give more attention to the schoolhouse than formerly. It ought to be not only convenient, commodious, and sanitary, but it ought to be a work of art which would appeal to the love of the beautiful. The schoolhouse itself ought to impress the scholar with an ideal, it ought to serve as an inspiration.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“The economic and moral waste of ignorance will little longer be tolerated.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
“It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their attention, supposing it to be new.”
Source: “Holy Cross College,” on June 25, 1919. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
“Education which is not based on religion and character is not education.”
Source: “The Needs Of Education,” on December 21, 1922. As found in The Price of Freedom.
“There is the most urgent necessity for a broader understanding of the teachings of history and the comprehension of the height and breadth of human nature, if we are to maintain society, if we are to support civilization. Much of the unrest of the present day, many of the unwise proposals for change in the way of laws, and the large amount of criticism of our government would be completely answered if there were a better general knowledge of history.”
Source: “The Needs of Education,” on December 21, 1922. As found in The Price of Freedom.
“To a race which claims a heritage of eternity the important question is not where we are but where we are going. Education fails which does not help in furnishing this with some solution. It ought to confer the ability to see in an unfolding history the broadening out of the base of civilization, the continued growth of the power and the dignity of the individual, the enlarging solidarity and stability of society, and the increasing reign of righteousness.”
Source: “The Instruments of Progress,” on June 7, 1922. As found in The Price of Freedom.
“The great service which education must perform is to confirm our faith in the world, establish our settled convictions, and maintain an open mind. The heritage of all the past is neither mean nor insignificant. It is a high estate.”
Source: “The Instruments of Progress,” on June 7, 1922. As found in The Price of Freedom.
Effort
“When industries can be carried on without any struggle, their results will be worthless, and when wages can be secured without effort they will have no purchasing value.”
Source: “On The Nature Of Politics,” on May 12, 1915. As found in Have Faith in Massachusetts.
Enterprise
“As we look back upon all this development, while we know that it was absolutely dependent upon a reign of law, nevertheless some of us can not help thinking how little of it has been dependent on acts of legislation. Given their institutions, the people themselves have in the past, as they must in the future, to a very large degree worked out their own salvation without the interposition of the Government. It is always possible to regulate and supervise by legislation what has already been created, but while legislation can stimulate and encourage, the real creative ability which builds up and develops the country, and in general makes human existence more tolerable and life more complete, has to be supplied by the genius of the people themselves. The Government can supply no substitute for enterprise.”
Source: “Education: the Cornerstone of Self-Government,” on July 4, 1924. As found in Foundations of the Republic.
Equality
“With it went the principle of equality, not an equality of possessions, not an equality of degree, but an equality in the attributes of humanity, an equality of kind.”
Source: “The Price of Freedom,” on January 21, 1923. As found in The Price of Freedom.
Click the links below to go to various sections of the collection.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L
M | N | O | P | R | S | T | V | W | X