"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." | Quote by: | |
Source: | Often attributed to Dr. Rogers with an incorrect date of 1931. The quotation is part of a longer 1984 sermon in a larger series titled "God’s Way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom" (CDA107); it also appears in Dr. Rogers' 1996 work "Ten Secrets for a Successful Family" stating that "by and large our young people do not know either the importance or the value of honest labor". Rogers did not originate the quote and did not claim to have originated it. Instead, he was citing almost verbatim a bit of anti-Soviet propaganda that had circulated in many magazines in the early 1960's. The quote appeared before that in the Congressional Record of 1958, where they were appended to the record by congressman Bruce Alger. Alger had borrowed the words from Gerald L. K. Smith, who had written them first in his magazine, The Cross and the Flag. Since the quote was attributed to Rogers in 2009, it has been regularly attributed to him; however, Rogers was essentially quoting Smith at the time. |
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