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
Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.
Interpretation
Liberty is a personal right that belongs to each individual rather than a collective concept for groups.
This quote emphasizes that the notion of liberty should be understood as an individual's right and freedom, rather than as a collective entity that can be owned by groups or societies. Coolidge argues that true liberty is experienced personally, highlighting the significance of individual rights and personal responsibility in the pursuit of freedom.
In practice
This quote could be used in a debate about individual rights versus collective rights.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The dice of God are always loaded.
Rulers who destroy men's freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. ... They cherish the illusion that they can combine the prerogatives of absolute power with the moral authority that comes from popular assent.
And he whose soul is flat -- the sky Will cave in on him by and by.
I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.
Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, there a church of God exists, even if it swarms with many faults.
There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.
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