Calvin Coolidge

Let us never forget that it was that resolution and that genius which made it the vitalizing force of a great nation.

They knew that ideals do not maintain themselves.

There is and can be no more doubt of the triumph of democracy in human affairs, than there is of the triumph of gravitation in the physical world; the only question is how and when.

It is the alpha and omega of man's relation to man, the beginning and the end.

It is the consummation of all theories of government, to the spirit of which all the nations of the earth must yield.

It is not a denial of the divine right of kings; it supplements that claim with the assertion of the divine right of all men.

Democracy is not a tearing-down; it is a building-up.

There the world first beheld the revelation of modern democracy.

There began the first of governments to acknowledge that it was founded on the sovereignty of the people.

We revere that day because it marks the beginnings of independence, the beginnings of a constitution that was finally to give universal freedom and equality to all American citizens, the beginnings of a government that was to recognize…

Not because the underlying principles set out in the Declaration of Independence were new; they are older than the Christian religion, or Greek philosophy, nor was it because history is made by proclamation or declaration; history is made…

It takes men of larger vision and higher inspiration, with a power to impart a larger vision and a higher inspiration to the people, to make history.

Then shall we see in our industrial army, from the most exalted captain to the humblest soldier in the ranks, a purpose worthy to minister to the highest needs of man and to fulfil the hope of a fairer day.

Let us look to the service rather than to the reward.

While we continue to condemn, unsparingly, selfishness and greed and all trafficking in the natural rights of man, let us not forget to respect thrift and industry and enterprise.

These, then, are the justifying conceptions of the spirit of our age; that commerce is the foundation of human progress and prosperity and the great artisan of human character.

The measure of success is not the quantity of merchandise, but the quality of manhood which is produced.

We must forever realize that material rewards are limited and in a sense they are only incidental, but the development of character is unlimited and is the only essential.

We ought to demand economic justice, but most of all because it is justice.

If material rewards be the only measure of success, there is no hope of a peaceful solution of our social questions, for they will never be large enough to satisfy.

Men must work for more than wages, factories must turn out more than merchandise, or there is naught but black despair ahead.

Money will not purchase character or good government.

It is not enough for the individual or the nation to acquire riches.

I have intended to indicate not only that commerce is an instrument of great power, but that commercial development is necessary to all human progress.

The progress of man has been measured by his commercial prosperity.