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 CoolidgeRead
The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the role of government in protecting the rights of individuals while aiming to eliminate privilege among classes.
Calvin Coolidge's quote reflects the fundamental idea that a government should serve the interests of its citizens by safeguarding their rights and working towards the decline of unequal privilege among social classes. This vision promotes a democratic system that prioritizes equality and justice, ensuring that every individual's rights are preserved and that power does not remain concentrated among a select few.
Themes
GovernmentRightsEqualityPrivilegeDemocracy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of equality.
More from Calvin Coolidge
All quotes βIt 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.
Calvin CoolidgeRead
America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.
Calvin CoolidgeRead
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 CoolidgeRead
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.
Calvin CoolidgeRead
The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.
Calvin CoolidgeRead
Similar quotes
[V]irtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.
George WashingtonRead
When you vote, vote for those who are not warmongers, and vote for those who respect human rights. When you see a president who doesn't respect human rights, don't vote for that person.
Shirin EbadiRead
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Will RogersRead
The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.
Herbert HooverRead
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.
Samuel AdamsRead