Notable & Quotable [Calvin Coolidge]

Wall Street Journal ^ | July 3, 2008 | Calvin Coolidge

[Forgiven_Sinner]

; Page A11

President Calvin Coolidge speaking on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, Pa.:

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 natio

[Forgiven_Sinner]

The people are responsible for their government and for the character of a nation.

[rellimpank]

—President Coolidge was the last president one to truly understand what the duties of the president were-—

[Army Air Corps]

It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation

Some send the memo to the Dems.

[Army Air Corps]

Some = Someone