Charles C. Johnson > Quotes

“It is an axiom of political science that if a representative is desired he should be chosen by popular vote; if professional skill is wanted, it can best be secured by appointment.” Coolidge”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President

“Coolidge noted, they preserved “teaching,” which after all amounted to “leading,” and had given it the “same safeguards and guaranties as freedom and equality.” The state’s constitution had insisted, he pointed out, that “wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, are necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties.”46 In those “days of reverence and of applied reverence,” the alumni of Harvard – John Adams and Bowdoin chief among them – “knew that freedom was the fruit of knowledge”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President

“It is sometimes assumed that Americans care only for material things, that they are bent only on that kind of success which can be cashed into dollars and cents. That is a very narrow and unintelligent opinion. We have been successful beyond others in great commercial and industrial enterprises because we have been a people of vision. Our prosperity has resulted not only by disregarding but by maintaining high ideals. Material resources do not, and cannot, stand alone; they are the product of spiritual resources. It is because America, as a nation, has held fast to the higher things of life, because it has had a faith in mankind which it has dared to put to the test of self-government, because it has believed greatly in honor and righteousness, that a great material prosperity has been added unto it.”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President

“The standards which teachers are required to maintain are continually rising. Their work takes on a new dignity. It is rising above a calling, above a profession, into the realm of art. It must be dignified by technical training, ennobled by character, and sanctified by faith.”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President

“We build our character largely by meeting our obligations to others,” he noted. “We all live in the same world. We are bound to a common destiny through a common brotherhood. The path to glory does not lie in a sordid individualism, a perverted independence, or a narrow nationalism. It lies toward the Golden Rule.”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President

“We live under a system of individual freedom and self-government,” Coolidge reassured his readers, “where each individual is entitled to the rewards of his own foresight and industry and is charged with his own support.”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President

“The “title of American” came from sacrifice and service, and for Coolidge it was the only title worth having. Self-government meant self-sacrifice. “Nothing is ever felt to be of value,” he said, “which is not won as a result of sacrifice.”
― Charles C. Johnson, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President