He who places his hope on thee, O Virgin all-glorious, will prosper in all he does.

Inscription on Byzantine coin during reign of Romanus III



Friday, July 04, 2008

Statecraft

The Wall Street Journal printed this quote from President Calvin Coolidge:

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people.

The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.


In my view, anything said by Coolidge or his Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon, is worthy of consideration.


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