No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.

Meaning of the quote

A business or organization cannot simply exist just for its own benefit. It needs to provide something valuable to others, like meeting an important need or offering a helpful service. If it fails to do this, it will stop being successful and eventually go out of business.

About Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was a small-government conservative with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor. He served from 1923 to 1929, overseeing a period of rapid economic growth known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’. Despite being a Republican, Coolidge gained widespread popularity for his support of racial equality and his hands-off governing approach.

More about the author

More quotes from Calvin Coolidge

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

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.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

I have never been hurt by what I have not said.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Never go out to meet trouble. If you just sit still, nine cases out of ten, someone will intercept it before it reaches you.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

The business of America is business.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Advertising is the life of trade.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

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 Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

You can’t know too much, but you can say too much.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

No man ever listened himself out of a job.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

One with the law is a majority.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Duty is not collective; it is personal.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Civilization and profit go hand in hand.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

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.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can’t be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

You know, I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me.

Calvin Coolidge

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929