Hard work and discipline
It is not industry, but idleness, that is degrading.
— Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933), The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1929), p. 68.

Hard work and discipline

What it means

Coolidge holds that work is honourable and idleness is what degrades us. There is dignity in industry.

About the author

Calvin Coolidge — President of the United States from 1923 to 1929.

Source and verification

Source
The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1929), p. 68.
Reference
Calvin Coolidge on Wikiquote
Checked
Wording and source taken from the sourced section of the author’s Wikiquote page, which cites the work given here (accessed 2026-10-11).
Copyright
Public domain: the author died in 1933.

The explanation above is ToDoMatriX’s own reading of the quote, not the author’s words.

More on hard work and discipline

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“Work first and then rest. Work first, and then gaze, but do not use golden ploughshares, nor bind ledgers in enamel.”

John Ruskin

“A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly.”

Samuel Johnson