Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century (Images from the Past) - Hardcover

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Excerpt

Sensible Words
for a New Century

African Americans

    Numbered among our population aresome twelve million colored people. Underour Constitution their rights are just as sacredas those of any other citizen. It is both a publicand a private duty to protect those rights.Congress ought to exercise all its powers ofprevention and punishment against thehideous crime of lynching, of which theNegroes are by no means the sole sufferers,but for which they furnish a majority of thevictims.

Annual message to Congress, December 6, 1923

Amending the Constitution

    Our Constitution has raised certain barriersagainst too hasty change. I believe suchprovision is wise. I doubt if there has been anychange that has ever really been desired bythe people which they have not been able tosecure. Stability of government is a veryimportant asset. If amendment is made easy,both revolution and reaction, as well as orderlyprogress, also become easy.

Presidential address at the dedication of a monument
to Lafayette, Baltimore, Maryland, September 6, 1924

America's Aspiration

    America seeks no empire built on bloodand forces ... she cherishes no purpose saveto merit the favor of Almighty God.

Presidential inaugural address,
Washington, D.C., March 4, 1925

Americans?One People

    Whether one traces his Americanism backthree centuries to the Mayflower, or threeyears to the steerage, is not half so importantas whether his Americanism of today is realand genuine. No matter by what variouscrafts we came here, we are all now in thesame boat.

Presidential address to the American Legion
convention, Omaha, Nebraska, October 6, 1925

Arms Policy

    For the cause of peace, the United Statesis adopting the only practicable principlesthat have ever been proposed, of preparation,limitation and renunciation.

President's Armistice Day address, November 11, 1928

Banks

    A bank is a not a private institution,responsible to itself alone, or to a few. It is apublic institution, under a moral obligation tobe administered for the public welfare.

Vice presidential remarks to a
New England bankers' dinner,
New York City, June 21, 1921

Baseball

    We go to the game in the hope that withthree men on bases the batter for our teamwill drive the ball over the fence so that we canrevel in the intoxication of crowd delirium.That is the common touch of nature reachingfrom the street urchin to the President whichlures us all to the ball field.

Newspaper column, October 3, 1930

Bewilderment

    When people become bewildered, theytend to become credulous.

Newspaper column, November 28, 1930

Biography

    Better wait till I'm dead.

From a conversation with historian Claude M. Fuess
in Plymouth, Vermont, about a possible biography
of the former president, August 6, 1932

Brevity

    And be brief?above all things?be brief.

Second inaugural address as president of the
Massachusetts Senate, January 1915

Business of the American People

    It is probable that a press which maintainsan intimate touch with the business currentsof the nation is likely to be more reliablethan it would be if it were a stranger to theseinfluences. After all, the chief business of theAmerican people is business. They are profoundlyconcerned with buying, selling,investing and prospering in the world.

Presidential address to the American Society of
Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C.,
January 17, 1925; the italicized phrase has been
frequently misquoted as "the chief business
of America is business."

Campaign Contributions

    I do not like as a matter of principle largecontributions given to campaign funds,because they create a bad impression and givethe idea of a wrongful motive.

Remarks at a presidential
news conference, April 24, 1924

Career Paths

    If we would stop thinking that a bachelorof arts must be a white-collar man and let himbe any kind of man he is adapted to be, thedanger of spoiling a good craftsman to make apoor professional man would vanish.

Newspaper column, April 21, 1931

Copyright © 2001 Peter Hannaford. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1-884592-33-3