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 CoolidgeWealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.
Calvin CoolidgeOne insidious practice which sugar-coats the dose of Federal intrusion is the division of expense . . .
Calvin CoolidgeThe door of opportunity swings wide open in our country. Through it, in constant flow, go those who toil. America recognizes no aristocracy save those who work. The badge of service is the sole requirement for admission to the ranks of our nobility.
Calvin CoolidgeMen speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.
Calvin Coolidge