Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Jefferson said, "big government is big enough to take everything away"

Once these bogus quotes hit the wing-nut echo chamber they bounce around on the internet forever. Anybody who has actually read the writings of Jefferson and his contemporaries can detect the style and grammar are wrong for the period.

According to FactCheckOrg in answer to an online inquiry: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." But Jefferson never said that.

According to Monticello researchers and Jefferson scholars who maintain the online Jefferson Encyclopedia: "We have never found such a statement in Jefferson’s writings. As far as we know, this statement actually originates with [Republican President] 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."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Does it matter who the quote came from? The statement is true.

Anonymous said...

I appreciate being able to learn where certain quotes came from. I hate that anybody is misquoted, especially our founding fathers. I agree with this quote, but am glad I am spared the embarrassment of wrongly assigning it to Jefferson. Thank you for your blog.