Attributed to Reagan from informal remarks to reporters 10 October 1984,and to students and faculty at St. John's University 28 March 1985. The statement was made a decade earlier by Gerald Ford in an address to a Joint Session of the Congress, 12 August 1974. It is sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson and Barry Goldwater.
Similar assertions have often been attributed to Barry Goldwater. 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."
A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take everything you have.
More quotes by Ronald Reagan
Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means.
The only way there could be war is if they start it; we're not going to start a war.
I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.
History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
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Attribution
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ronald Reagan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.