From www.monticello.org -- click on link above:
Government big enough to give you everything you want...(Quotation)
The following statement, or variations thereof, is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson:
"A government big enough to give you everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have...."
We have never found such a statement in Jefferson's writings. As far as we know, this statement actually originates with Gerald R. Ford, who said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have," in an address to a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974.[1]
This quotation is sometimes followed by, "The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases," which is most likely a misquotation of Jefferson's comment, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground."
Footnotes
- ↑ Suzy Platt, ed., Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1989), 140. Available online at http://www.bartleby.com/73/714.html. See the text of Ford's speech at the American Presidency Project.
Further Sources
- Coates, Eyler Robert, Sr. The Thomas Jefferson FAQ. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7842/archives/quote031.htm A discussion of this particular spurious quotation.
- Coates, Eyler Robert, Sr. Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government: Quotations from the Writings of Thomas Jefferson. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/.
- Jeffersonian Cyclopedia.
- PTJ.
1 comment:
The amazing thing is how often some folks stick to their guns when you point this stuff out to them.
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