Sunday, April 25, 2021

Quotes

Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal, a phrase that the Yankees and the distaff side of the Executive branch in Washington are fond of hurling at us. There is a tendency in this year of grace, 1935, for certain people to use this phrase of context, to satisfy all conditions. The most ridiculous example I can think of is that people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious—because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe—some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they’re born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cake than others—some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of men. 

“But there is one way in this country which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man equal of an Einstein, and an ignorant man equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honourable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human constitution, but in this country our courts are the great levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal. (Atticus Finch, closing speech to the jury in To Kill A Mockingbird.)

Or this from Calvin Coolidge, in his autobiography.  You might contrast this with the sentiments of recent presidents, including their own autobiographies.

It is a great advantage to a president and a major source of safety to the country for him to know that he is not a great man. When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.

5 comments:

Sam L. said...

Now, who comes to my mind...

Sam L. said...

I ain't agonna tell!

ruralcounsel said...

This Coolidge quote should be repeated at the beginning and conclusion of every presidential debate.

dmoelling said...

Coolidge and Lincoln strike me as having the same public demeanor. Ike is somewhat there. Taft might be the same but I haven't studied him

RichardJohnson said...

National Review Greatbooks Podcasts recently featured Calvin Coolidge's Autobiography. I have read only excerpts, but what I have read is consistent with that quote. He reminds me of the Old Yankees I grew up with in my hometown: laconic and unpretentious. (Although you may be the direct descendant of a Revolutionary War hero, shoveling manure in your dairy farmer job will not tend you towards pretentiousness.) I haven't yet read Amity Shlaes's biography of Coolidge, so I cannot yet judge his abilities as President, but I have read enough of his Autobiography to commend him as a person.