The earliest known attribution of this quote was December 9, 1951, in what appears to be an op-ed piece in The Daily Oklahoman under the byline Elmer T. Peterson, [This is the Hard Core of Freedom, Elmer T. Peterson, Daily Oklahoman, 9 December 1951, 12A]. The quote has not been found in Tytler's work. It has also been attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville.
There are many variants circulating with various permutations of majority, voters, citizens, or public. Ronald Reagan is known to have used this in speeches, as reported in Loren Collins, "The Truth About Tytler http://lorencollins.net/tytler.html":
Other variants:
The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Attributed
“Democracies are dangerous forms of government. They always become dictatorships; and they almost always talk about this universal health care.”
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Garden of Eden
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Kent Hovind 236
American young Earth creationist 1953Related quotes
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2011
"The Fatal Flaw of Socialized Health Care" https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-fatal-flaw-of-socialized-health-care_2815015.html
“Government is never the solution, but it is almost always the problem.”
Source: Morning Star (2016), Ch. 21: Quicksilver
Context: No. I am not an anarchist, a communist, a fascist, a plutocrat, or even a demokrat, for that matter. My boys, don't believe what they tell you in school. Government is never the solution, but it is almost always the problem. I'm a capitalist. And I believe in effort and progress and the ingenuity of our species. The continuing evolution and advancement of our kind based on fair competition. Fact of the matter is, Gold does not want man to continue to evolve. Since the conquering, they have routinely stifled advancement to maintain their heaven. They've wrapped themselves in myth. Filled their grand oceans with monsters to hunt. Cultivated private Mirkwoods and Olympuses of their very own. They have suits of armor to make them flying gods. And they preserve that ridiculous fairy tale by keeping mankind frozen in time. Curbing invention, curiosity, social mobility. Change threatens that.
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Garden of Eden
“A little wit and plenty of authority, that is what has almost always governed the world.”
Un peu d'esprit et beaucoup d'autorité, c'est ce qui a presque toujours gouverné le monde.
Socrate Chrétien, Discours VIII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 230.
Socrate Chrétien (1662)