Governments can promise something for nothing but they cannot deliver.
 Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922). copy citation

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Author Henry Ford
Source My Life and Work
Topic government
Date 1922
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7213/pg7213-images.html

Context

“Business and government are necessary as servants, like water and grain; as masters they overturn the natural order. The welfare of the country is squarely up to us as individuals. That is where it should be and that is where it is safest. Governments can promise something for nothing but they cannot deliver. They can juggle the currencies as they did in Europe (and as bankers the world over do, as long as they can get the benefit of the juggling) with a patter of solemn nonsense. But it is work and work alone that can continue to deliver the goods—and that, down in his heart, is what every man knows.” source