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
We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth, peace, security, liberty, our family, our friends, our home. . .But when we look at our flag and behold it emblazoned with all our rights we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The flag symbolizes not only our freedoms and cherished values but also the responsibilities that uphold them.
Calvin Coolidge emphasizes that while the flag represents everything that is important to us, such as peace, security, and our loved ones, it also serves as a reminder of the duties we must fulfill to safeguard these values. The greatness associated with the flag is fundamentally linked to the sense of responsibility we take on as individuals and members of society.
Themes
FlagDutyResponsibilityFreedomValues
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about national pride during a Fourth of July celebration.
More from Calvin Coolidge
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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