Government big enough to supply you...(Quotation)

From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

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-“A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have....”+The following statement, or variations thereof, is often attributed to [[Thomas Jefferson]]:
-We do not find this quotation in any of the standard sources available to us.+''' "A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have...."'''
---Anna 16:24, 31 May 2007 (EDT) +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.<ref>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 [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4694 text of Ford's speech] at the American Presidency Project.</ref>
 + 
 +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...(Quotation)|The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground]]."
 + 
 +==Footnotes==
 +<references/>
== Further Sources == == 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/ http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/]. * Coates, Eyler Robert, Sr. ''Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government: Quotations from the Writings of Thomas Jefferson''. [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/ http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/].
* [[Short Title List|''Jeffersonian Cyclopedia'']]. * [[Short Title List|''Jeffersonian Cyclopedia'']].
-* [[Short Title List|PTJ]].+* [[Short Title List|''PTJ'']].
[[Category:Spurious Quotations]] [[Category:Spurious Quotations]]

Current revision

The following statement, or variations thereof, is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson:

"A government big enough to supply you with 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

  1. ↑ 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

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