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"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

— Gerald Ford

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Presidents of the United States Members of the United States House of Representatives Vice Presidents of the United States Republican Party (United States) politicians United States presidential candidates, 1976

Original Language: English

Sources

Similar assertions have often been attributed to Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Some of the inspiration for such expressions may lie in "The Criminality of the State" by Albert Jay Nock in American Mercury (March 1939) where he stated: "You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you."

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford

Similar assertions have often been attributed to Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Some of the inspiration for such expressions may lie in "The Criminality of the State" by Albert Jay Nock in American Mercury (March 1939) where he stated: "You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you."