The following statement, or variations thereof, is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson:
"A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have...."
We have never found such a statement in Jefferson's writings. As far as we know, this statement actually originates with 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.[1]
Footnotes
↑ Suzy Platt, ed., Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1989), 140. Available online at http://www.bartleby.com/73/714.html.
It's been attributed to many, but was later in the history of our nation.