evidence: FACT CHECK: Did Thomas Jefferson Say That Big Government Could ‘Take Everything You Have’? The Facebook page Cold Dead Hands shared an image claiming that founding father Thomas Jefferson said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have." [...] The quote has been so often misattributed to Jefferson that the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, curated by his estate at Monticello, has an entry dedicated to this "spurious quotation."