It takes a great man to be a good listener. Calvin Coolidge More Quotes by Calvin Coolidge More Quotes From Calvin Coolidge In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience of the law. Calvin Coolidge republic citizens law Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty. Calvin Coolidge individualism libertarian liberty Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character. Calvin Coolidge wealth self character There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer. Calvin Coolidge tired nature healing Freedom is not only bought with a great price; it is maintained by unremitting effort. Calvin Coolidge effort No method of procedure has ever been devised by which liberty could be divorced from local self-government. No plan of centralization has ever been adopted which did not result in bureaucracy, tyranny, inflexibility, reaction, and decline. Calvin Coolidge liberty government self To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race. Calvin Coolidge patriotic political race Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Calvin Coolidge achievement achieve doubters Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. Calvin Coolidge ideals government There is no justification for public interference with purely private concerns. Calvin Coolidge interference concern justification The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good. Calvin Coolidge evil country way I cannot think of anything characteristically American that was not produced by toil. I cannot think of any American man or woman preeminent in the history of our nation who did not reach their place through toil. I cannot think of anything that represents the American people as a whole so adequately as honest work. Calvin Coolidge men people thinking Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation. Calvin Coolidge government responsibility character You don't have to explain something you never said. Calvin Coolidge silence said We demand entire freedom of action and then expect the government in some miraculous way to save us from the consequences of our own acts.... Self-government means self-reliance. Calvin Coolidge government self mean 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. Calvin Coolidge united-states care simple The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential. Calvin Coolidge vision common country It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. Calvin Coolidge libertarian-party government important Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Calvin Coolidge information source firsts What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told. Calvin Coolidge good-woman helping men