"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have" appears, unattributed, in newspaper articles and politicians' speeches starting in the early 1950s. I don't think it would be possible now to trace it to the original crafter of the line. It is certainly not TJ, though.
As a general aside -- many of the spurious and paraphrased items attributed to Jefferson can be traced back to Alfred J Nock's biography, in which he has a terrible sloppy habit of conflating actual Jefferson quotes with either commentary from other authors or himself but making the whole thing look like a direct quote from Jefferson.
"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." seems to be a paraphrase of something Jefferson actually did write: "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground." (Spelling of 'yield' as in original -- a 1788 letter to Edward Carrington. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-13-02-0120)
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
Thomas Jefferson
I believe Aesop figured that out long ago. "The petty thieves we hang. The really big ones we elect to high office."
Fake quotation (The first sentence is authentic, but separated from its context.)
Would you post the accurate quotes this compilation is derived from, please?
Thanks!
Jefferson was unbelievably smart & actually covered most of the stupid things that government or people can do...to destroy their Freedom.
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have" appears, unattributed, in newspaper articles and politicians' speeches starting in the early 1950s. I don't think it would be possible now to trace it to the original crafter of the line. It is certainly not TJ, though.
As a general aside -- many of the spurious and paraphrased items attributed to Jefferson can be traced back to Alfred J Nock's biography, in which he has a terrible sloppy habit of conflating actual Jefferson quotes with either commentary from other authors or himself but making the whole thing look like a direct quote from Jefferson.
"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." seems to be a paraphrase of something Jefferson actually did write: "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground." (Spelling of 'yield' as in original -- a 1788 letter to Edward Carrington. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-13-02-0120)
тАЬI think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.тАЭ
тАж is from a letter Jefferson wrote in 1824. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-4523
As far as I know, the rest of it has nothing to do with Jefferson.