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

Coolidge’s line links human development to reverence: people truly “grow” when they orient themselves toward something higher than appetite, ego, or immediate utility. “Worship” here can be read narrowly as religious devotion, but also more broadly as disciplined acknowledgment of transcendent standards—truth, duty, moral law—that judge and shape the self. The claim implies that progress is not merely material or technical; it is ethical and spiritual, requiring humility and a sense of accountability beyond the self. In that sense, worship functions as a formative practice: it reorders priorities, cultivates restraint, and provides a horizon of meaning against which character can mature.