Quotes we left out

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.”

Credited to Thomas Jefferson

What the evidence says

Monticello has not found this line, or any version of it, in Jefferson's writings. Its earliest known appearance in print is 1952, in Paul Harvey's book Remember These Things. Nobody tied it to Jefferson in print until 2005.

President Gerald Ford said a version of it in his address to Congress on 12 August 1974. That is why you will find it in Patriot Daily Quotes under Ford's name, with a link to his speech.

Check it: Monticello: Government big enough (spurious quotation) · Ford's address to Congress, 12 August 1974

“When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”

Credited to Thomas Jefferson

What the evidence says

Monticello has found no evidence that Jefferson said or wrote it. The earliest known appearance is 1914, in a printed debate on socialism by John Basil Barnhill. It was first credited to Jefferson in print in 1994. The same line is also pinned on Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine.

Check it: Monticello: When government fears the people (spurious quotation)

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Credited to Thomas Jefferson

What the evidence says

Monticello has no evidence Jefferson ever said or wrote it. The phrase was in print by 1817, in a Vermont newspaper, and was first credited to Jefferson in 1834.

It traces back to the Irish lawyer John Philpot Curran, who said that “the condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.” It has also been credited to Patrick Henry and Wendell Phillips.

Check it: Monticello: Eternal vigilance (spurious quotation)

“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”

Credited to Thomas Jefferson

What the evidence says

Monticello calls this a fair summary of Jefferson's views on education. The words are not his. The sentence has not been found anywhere in his writings, and its earliest known appearance in print is 2013.

Check it: Monticello: An educated citizenry (spurious quotation)

“The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.”

Credited to Thomas Jefferson

What the evidence says

Monticello searched Jefferson's papers and found no trace of it. The line first appears in print in 2007, in a book by Matt Carson. That is 181 years after Jefferson died.

Check it: Monticello: The beauty of the Second Amendment (spurious quotation)

“I cannot tell a lie.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

This line comes from the cherry tree story. Mason Locke Weems first published his biography of Washington in 1800, the year after Washington died. The cherry tree story did not appear until the fifth edition, in 1806.

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations · Mount Vernon: The cherry tree myth

“A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

The opening words are real. They come from Washington's first annual message to Congress on 8 January 1790. The rest was added later.

What Washington actually said was: “A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a Uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.”

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations · Washington's message of 8 January 1790 on Founders Online

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

Mount Vernon has found no source for this line, and no record of anyone, Washington or otherwise, saying it.

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

This line is often tied to Washington's Farewell Address of 1796. It is not in the Farewell Address.

Mount Vernon suggests it may grow out of an 1835 biography by James K. Paulding, which has Washington saying, “It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being.” That remark has never been proven to come from Washington either.

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

These are real words from the Revolution, by a different author. Thomas Paine wrote them in The American Crisis in December 1776. You will find this quote in Patriot Daily Quotes under Paine's name.

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations · Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, on Project Gutenberg

“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

Mount Vernon found no sign of this in Washington's papers. The line comes from Senator William Edgar Borah, writing in Reader's Digest in 1929.

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations

“It's wonderful what we can do if we're always doing.”

Credited to George Washington

What the evidence says

This is a real founder quote, credited to the wrong founder. Thomas Jefferson wrote “It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing” in a letter to his daughter Martha on 5 May 1787.

Check it: Mount Vernon: Spurious Quotations · Jefferson to Martha Jefferson, 5 May 1787, on Founders Online

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Credited to Benjamin Franklin

What the evidence says

Franklin did write about God and drink, but his subject was wine. In a letter written in French to his friend the Abbé Morellet, he described rain falling on vineyards and becoming wine, “a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.” His grandson published the letter in 1818.

Quote Investigator found the beer version only around 1996. Someone swapped one word.

Check it: Quote Investigator: Beer or wine is proof that God loves us

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”

Credited to Benjamin Franklin

What the evidence says

Quote Investigator found no real evidence that Franklin said this. The idea goes back to the Chinese philosopher Xunzi, in the third century BC. A short form appeared in 1953 in a U.S. government health journal, where it was called a “Chinese adage.”

Check it: Quote Investigator: Tell me and I forget