"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"
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Coolidge turns doubt into fuel with the chilly efficiency of a New England accountant. The line isn’t a pep talk so much as a governing philosophy: public opinion is noisy, reflexively risk-averse, and often calibrated to protect the speaker from being wrong. By framing naysayers as “invariably” declaring impossibility, he collapses a thousand petty objections into a predictable ritual. That exaggeration is strategic. If disbelief is the default setting, then it stops being information and becomes background static.
The subtext is even sharper: consequential action rarely comes with a social permission slip. Coolidge isn’t claiming crowds are always mistaken on the merits; he’s arguing they’re reliable indicators of friction. When “people” say something can’t be done, he hears that it will be politically expensive, technically hard, or reputationally dangerous - which is precisely why it matters. The phrase “advisable not to give too much heed” reads like prudence, not bravado, letting him sound disciplined rather than defiant.
As a presidential voice from the 1920s, it also carries an insider’s awareness of how Washington and the press metabolize ambition: big projects invite instant vetoes from cynics, rivals, and the risk managers of the status quo. Coolidge’s rhetorical move is to treat that chorus as a timing mechanism. Skepticism becomes his signal to act, not because he’s addicted to contrarianism, but because consensus often arrives only after the breakthrough.
The subtext is even sharper: consequential action rarely comes with a social permission slip. Coolidge isn’t claiming crowds are always mistaken on the merits; he’s arguing they’re reliable indicators of friction. When “people” say something can’t be done, he hears that it will be politically expensive, technically hard, or reputationally dangerous - which is precisely why it matters. The phrase “advisable not to give too much heed” reads like prudence, not bravado, letting him sound disciplined rather than defiant.
As a presidential voice from the 1920s, it also carries an insider’s awareness of how Washington and the press metabolize ambition: big projects invite instant vetoes from cynics, rivals, and the risk managers of the status quo. Coolidge’s rhetorical move is to treat that chorus as a timing mechanism. Skepticism becomes his signal to act, not because he’s addicted to contrarianism, but because consensus often arrives only after the breakthrough.
Quote Details
| Topic | Never Give Up |
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