evidence: COMMENT: Mr., Armstrong, your solution video is splendid. What you say about government only interested in a crisis and not preventing anything makes perfect sense. I believe it was George Washington who said: "Government Is Not Reason, It Is Not Eloquence — It Is Force" [...] ANSWER: I do not believe Washington ever said that. I tried to find the source and could not. The earliest claim is only from 1902 with no hard evidence. Yet, the words are very true. It is just questionable whether anyone in government, with the exception of Thomas Jefferson, would have ever dared to utter such a phrase. [...] Consequently, "Government Is Not Reason, It Is Not Eloquence — It Is Force" is a correct statement. It was not spoken by Washington, but it is a correct statement.