Vandal With a Handle

I have on my office wall a quote from Calvin Coolidge.

Nothing in this world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.

It turns out there are many more quotable lines from a POTUS who is not appreciated as he should be. The article is here and a couple of teasers are:

You can display no greater wisdom than by resisting proposals for needless legislation. It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

and

There is scarcely a word in the constitution of any of our States or of our nation that was not written there for the purpose of protecting the liberties of the people from some servitude which a despotic government had at some time imposed upon them.

and how about this jewel:

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.

There is a lot more. The principles of limited government, restraint of taxation, the preservation of personal liberty and natural rights are not novelties. They are the basis of American government. The discovery that they no longer inform the decisions of contemporary politicians tells us more about the politicians than anything else.