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
A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Excessive taxation without necessity undermines freedom and promotes oppression.
Calvin Coolidge's quote highlights the dangers of a government that imposes taxes beyond what is necessary for the well-being of the public. He argues that such actions are not in service of liberty but rather contribute to a state of tyranny, where citizens become subservient to the government's demands instead of enjoying the freedoms granted by a fair and just system.
Themes
GovernmentTaxationLibertyTyrannyServitudePublic Policy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about government policies and taxation.
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.
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