Quote#Truth
If the Senate has any weakness it is because the people have sent to…
Quote byCalvin Coolidge · 1872–1933
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (1929).
English (original)
If the Senate has any weakness it is because the people have sent to that body men lacking the necessary ability and character to perform the proper functions. But this is not the fault of the Senate. It cannot choose its own members but has to work with what is sent to it. The fault lies back in the citizenship of the states. If the Senate does not function properly the blame is chiefly on them.
— Calvin Coolidge
More from Calvin Coolidge
It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.
Well, they’re going to elect that Stupid Hoover, and he’s going to have some trouble. He’s going to have to spend money, but it won’t be enough. Then the Democrats will come in. But they don’t know anything about money.
It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.
Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its form of government …
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There were those in the South who would have been willing to wage war for its continuation