Coolidge, John Calvin

US farmer, storekeeper, and public magistrate

administered presidential oath of office to Calvin Coolidge 1923

father of Calvin Coolidge

husband of Virginia Coolidge 1868

• "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."
• "I've never been hurt by anything I didn't say."
• "Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."
• "If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress."
• "The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."