acptulsa
08-18-2014, 01:21 PM
You read that right. Our thirtieth president, though some eighty years dead, has something pertinent to say about Ferguson, Mo. And it would behoove us to listen, too...
'We come here to honor the past, and in doing so render more secure the present.'--Calvin Coolidge
`We all came to America on different boats, but we're in the same boat now, and we have to learn to get along with each other.'--Calvin Coolidge
`The American people must be free, and the way to do this is to have what government you have to have on the closest level to the people.'--Calvin Coolidge
'It is our theory that the people own the government, not that the government should own the people.'--Calvin Coolidge
'Proposals for promoting the peace of the world will have careful consideration. But we are not a people who are always seeking for a sign. We know that peace comes from honesty and fair dealing, from moderation, and a generous regard for the rights of others. The heart of the Nation is more important than treaties.'--Calvin Coolidge
'When people are bewildered, they tend to become credulous.'--Calvin Coolidge
'It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.'--Calvin Coolidge
'There are among us a great mass of people who have been reared for generations under a government of tyranny and oppression. It is ingrained in their blood that there is no other form of government. They are disposed and inclined to think our institutions partake of the same nature as these they have left behind. We know they are wrong. They must be shown they are wrong.'--Calvin Coolidge
'The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the practice of primitive peoples.'--Calvin Coolidge
'No nation [much less city] ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or insure it victory in time of war.--Calvin Coolidge
'Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.'--Calvin Coolidge
'Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.'--Calvin Coolidge
'Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.'--Calvin Coolidge
'One of the greatest dangers to peace lies in the economic pressure to which people find themselves subjected. One of the most practical things to be done in the world is to seek arrangements under which such pressure may be removed, so that opportunity may be renewed and hope may be revived.--Calvin Coolidge
'They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do [like voting the crooks out of their city council?] most of our big problems would take care of themselves.'--Calvin Coolidge
'I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.'--Calvin Coolidge
Especially those who think the way to enforce it is to violate it?
'There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.'--Calvin Coolidge
'About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.
'No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.'--Calvin Coolidge
'American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.'--Calvin Coolidge
'One with the law is a majority.'--Calvin Coolidge
'We come here to honor the past, and in doing so render more secure the present.'--Calvin Coolidge
`We all came to America on different boats, but we're in the same boat now, and we have to learn to get along with each other.'--Calvin Coolidge
`The American people must be free, and the way to do this is to have what government you have to have on the closest level to the people.'--Calvin Coolidge
'It is our theory that the people own the government, not that the government should own the people.'--Calvin Coolidge
'Proposals for promoting the peace of the world will have careful consideration. But we are not a people who are always seeking for a sign. We know that peace comes from honesty and fair dealing, from moderation, and a generous regard for the rights of others. The heart of the Nation is more important than treaties.'--Calvin Coolidge
'When people are bewildered, they tend to become credulous.'--Calvin Coolidge
'It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.'--Calvin Coolidge
'There are among us a great mass of people who have been reared for generations under a government of tyranny and oppression. It is ingrained in their blood that there is no other form of government. They are disposed and inclined to think our institutions partake of the same nature as these they have left behind. We know they are wrong. They must be shown they are wrong.'--Calvin Coolidge
'The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the practice of primitive peoples.'--Calvin Coolidge
'No nation [much less city] ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or insure it victory in time of war.--Calvin Coolidge
'Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.'--Calvin Coolidge
'Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.'--Calvin Coolidge
'Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.'--Calvin Coolidge
'One of the greatest dangers to peace lies in the economic pressure to which people find themselves subjected. One of the most practical things to be done in the world is to seek arrangements under which such pressure may be removed, so that opportunity may be renewed and hope may be revived.--Calvin Coolidge
'They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do [like voting the crooks out of their city council?] most of our big problems would take care of themselves.'--Calvin Coolidge
'I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.'--Calvin Coolidge
Especially those who think the way to enforce it is to violate it?
'There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.'--Calvin Coolidge
'About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.
'No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.'--Calvin Coolidge
'American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.'--Calvin Coolidge
'One with the law is a majority.'--Calvin Coolidge