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
If the Government gets into business on any large scale, we soon find that the beneficiaries attempt to play a large part in the control. While in theory it is to serve the public, in practice it will be very largely serving private interests. It comes to be regarded as a species of government favor and those who are the most adroit get the larger part of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Government involvement in business often leads to the prioritization of private interests over public good.
Calvin Coolidge's quote reflects on the complexity of government participation in business. While it may be intended to help the public, in reality, it often ends up benefiting those who are adept at influencing the system, thereby possibly compromising the original intent of serving the greater good. This highlights the challenges of ensuring that public policies remain focused on their intended purpose amidst potential manipulation by private interests.
Themes
GovernmentBusinessPublic InterestPrivate InterestControl
In practice
Example use cases
In a political speech discussing regulations on industries.
More from Calvin Coolidge
All quotes →It 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
When Bush says democracy, I often wonder what he's referring to.
Angela DavisRead
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
Thomas JeffersonRead
The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
Noam ChomskyRead
The state governments have a full superintendence and control over the immense mass of local interests of their respective states, which connect themselves with the feelings, the affections, the municipal institutions, and the internal arrangements of the whole population. They possess, too, the immediate administration of justice in all cases, civil and criminal, which concern the property, personal rights, and peaceful pursuits of their own citizens.
Joseph StoryRead
Customs, traditions, laws should be flexible, within good reason, if that is what it takes to make our democracy work.
John LewisRead
America will be far safer if we reduce the chances of a terrorist attack in one of our cities than if we diminish the civil liberties of our own people.
Nancy PelosiRead