Today At Monticello

  • 71° Sunny
  • Sun 73° / 47°
  • Mem 75° / 56°
  • Tue 81° / 61°
  • Wed 86° / 65°

View full forecast

Today’s Hours

Gartes are open 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Learn more
Submitted by cwollerton on Wed, 2010-12-01 11:06
in

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

  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

TEST

Comments

says

The quote may even go back to Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), founder and long-time president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

Lisa at the ptjrs – Managing Editor, Monticello Staff
January 16, 2013, 9:19 pm on Government big enough to give you everything you want...(Quotation)
says

I actually read a similar statement in the book, An Enemy hath Done This, written by Ezra Taft Benson (Sec. Dept. of Agriculture under Eisenhower), published in 1969. Stated in this book as follows:

"Any government powerful enough to give the people all that they want is also powerful enough to take from the people all that they have."

kcc – Student
December 31, 2012, 10:55 pm on Government big enough to give you everything you want...(Quotation)
says

In "Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right," Lisa McGirr cites Theodore H. White, "The Making of the President, 1964" [New York: Atheneum, 1965], page 337. White attributed the following statement to Barry Goldwater, who included it in a speech to supporters in Fullerton, California, while he was pursuing the Republican candidacy for president.
"government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also strong enough to take it away."

Lisa at the ptjrs – Managing Editor, Monticello Staff
December 29, 2012, 7:40 pm on Government big enough to give you everything you want...(Quotation)
says

Thanks and kudos to you both for spotting these earlier variations, Lisa and kcc! I will note them in the article.

Anna Berkes – Research Librarian, Monticello Staff
January 15, 2013, 11:39 am on Government big enough to give you everything you want...(Quotation)