Coolidge Quotes

“I regard a good budget as among the noblest monuments of virtue.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Under Coolidge, the federal debt fell. Under Coolidge, the top income tax rate came down by half, to 25 percent. Under Coolidge, the federal budget was always in surplus. Under Coolidge, unemployment was 5 percent or even 3 percent. Under Coolidge, Americans wired their homes for electricity and bought their first cars or household appliances on credit. Under Coolidge, the economy grew strongly, even as the federal government shrank. Under Coolidge, the rates of patent applications and patents granted increased dramatically. Under Coolidge, there came no federal antilynching law, but lynchings themselves became less frequent and Ku Klux Klan membership dropped by millions. Under Coolidge, a man from a town without a railroad station, Americans moved from the road into the air. Under Coolidge, religious faith found its modern context: the first great White House Christmas tree was lit, an ingenious use for the new technology, electricity. Under Coolidge, the number of local telephone calls went up by a quarter. In Silent Cal’s time, Americans learned to chatter. Under Coolidge, wages rose and interest rates came down so that the poor might borrow more easily. Under Coolidge, the rich came to pay a greater share of the income tax.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Coolidge had ladled out his share of mockery, especially in college, but could see now that attack politics yielded poor results. The best way to win was to stick to the issues and forgo any personal attacks or name-calling. Civility would be his rule from now on. He would try it out in his next campaign, for the office of state representative in Boston.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Isn’t it a strange thing,” he asked Barton, “that in every period of social unrest men have the notion that they can pass a law and suspend the operations of economic law?”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Coolidge believed higher taxes were wrong because they took away from men money that was their property; he believed lower rates were good precisely because they encouraged enterprise, but also because they brought less money. Low rates starved the government beast.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Most presidents place faith in action; the modern presidency is perpetual motion. Coolidge made virtue of inaction.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“We have no money to bestow upon a class of people that is not taken from the whole people,” he continued; the individual was going to lose out to the group.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower or three years to the steerage is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Once, on a walk with the president, Senator Selden Spencer of Missouri tried to cheer Coolidge by pointing to the White House and asking, in a joking tone, who might live there. “Nobody,” Coolidge replied, “they just come and go.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Surveying the travails of the thirtieth president, some writers have suggested that those personal defeats are the essence of the Coolidge story. They err. Coolidge’s is not a story of “Yes, but.” It is a story of “But yes.” For at every stage, Coolidge did push forward, and so triumph.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“But there are many fields in which Coolidge surpassed other men and other presidents and set a standard. Most presidents place faith in action; the modern presidency is perpetual motion. Coolidge made virtue of inaction. “Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation,” he told his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate. “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones,” he wrote to his father as early as 1910. Congress always says, “Do.” Coolidge replied, “Do not do,” or, at least, “Do less.” Whereas other presidents made themselves omnipresent, Coolidge held back. At the time, and subsequently, many have deemed the Coolidge method laziness. Upon examination, however, the inaction reflects strength. In politics as in business, it is often harder, after all, not to do, to delegate, than to do. Coolidge is our great refrainer.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Perhaps the deepest reason for Coolidge’s recent obscurity is that the thirtieth president spoke a different economic language from ours. He did not say “money supply”; he said “credit.” He did not say “the federal government”; he said “the national government.” He did not say “private sector”; he said “commerce.” He did not say “savings”; he said “thrift” or “economy.” Indeed, he especially cherished the word “economy” because it came from the Greek for”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“One should never trouble about getting a better job. But one should do one’s present job in such a manner as to qualify for a better job when it comes along.” The”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower or three years to the steerage is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.” As it happened, the”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. -Calvin Coolidge”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge

“Coolidge weighed only 119.5 pounds, below the class average, despite a height that was slightly more than average, 68.9 inches.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government

“Some papers were taken aback by Coolidge’s sudden fame. The New York Times resented the fact that a policy it admired had been promulgated by a figure unfamiliar to its editors.”
― Amity Shlaes, Coolidge: A Political Biography of Presidential Leadership, Service, and How One President Rebuilt America's Trust in Government