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.
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More quotes from Calvin Coolidge
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.
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.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
I have never been hurt by what I have not said.
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.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
The business of America is business.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Advertising is the life of trade.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
You can’t know too much, but you can say too much.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
No man ever listened himself out of a job.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
One with the law is a majority.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Duty is not collective; it is personal.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Civilization and profit go hand in hand.
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.
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.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.
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.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
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.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
It takes a great man to be a good listener.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929
The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.
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.
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.
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.
president of the United States from 1923 to 1929