![]() "No one has ever found any evidence that Washington said it." "This is undoubtedly apocryphal, like many other quotations attributed to Lincoln or Washington," said Shapiro. The quote, as noted by professor Eugene Volokh and Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, is also fake. Not surprisingly, the majority of what our federal government does today, abroad or domestically, also continues to take place well outside the parameters of the Constitution. The Founding Fathers also would not be surprised to see that trying to solve problems with continuous government action creates its own set of problems. ![]() Yet today it seems we are much less hesitant to use government action, whether abroad or domestically, than the Founders could have ever imagined. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." Science tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. George Washington told us: "Government is not reason it is not eloquence it is force…. Such is the nature of government, which is precisely why the Founders viewed military use, even when warranted, as something that should be definite and limited. Paul also uses a fake George Washington quote. ![]() "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical," reads the Jefferson quote at the beginning on one chapter.Īs noted by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, this quote comes from Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the original actually reads, "to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." The foundation notes that it has been attributed to Gerald Ford, though an assistant to Ford said he heard it from someone else.Īnother quote cited by Paul from Jefferson appears to be a misquote. "Neither this quotation nor any of its variant forms has been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson," writes the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that a "government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have," he could have easily been referencing Obamacare. Later, writing on Obamacare, Paul cites a different fake Jefferson quote. "This sort of invasiveness is also precisely the reason we have a Second Amendment protecting our right to keep and bear arms, or as Jefferson wrote 'The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.'"Īs noted by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, "this quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson." Writing on the Patriot Act, Paul again cites a fake Jefferson quote. "This exact quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson," writes the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Jefferson wrote, "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." This has certainly been true of too much government intervention, as well as attempts to administer too many government benefits. ![]() In their wisdom, the Founding Fathers- whose Constitution was supposed to restrain our rulers- would have likely made the same prediction. "We currently have no evidence to confirm that Thomas Jefferson ever said or wrote" this phrase, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has said of "the price of liberty was eternal vigilance," which Paul uses twice in his book.Įarlier, Paul used another fake Jefferson quote: Thomas Jefferson believed that the price of liberty was eternal vigilance - and now the Tea Party must prove it. It is not a job that will be finished overnight or even in an election cycle. The Tea Party's job is to keep making things clearer, and this is only the beginning. The final line in Paul's book The Tea Party Goes to Washington is a fake sentiment attributed to Jefferson: Paul's first two books - Government Bullies, which was an e-book best-seller, and The Tea Party Goes to Washington - lay out the conservative manifesto he hoped to bring to Washington following the tea party wave in 2010.Ī heavy theme in Paul's books is that the tea party movement is the intellectual heir to the Founding Fathers, with Paul often arguing he knows what position our country's earliest leaders would have had on certain issues. Many of the quotes attributed to the Founding Fathers in two of Rand Paul's books are either fake, misquoted, or taken entirely out of context, BuzzFeed News has found. ![]()
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