“If the syntax is good enough for the information, it should be good enough for the meta-information.”

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Source: 1960s, Management misinformation systems, 1967, p. 147.

Source: Notorious Pleasures

Source: City of Bones

Attributed, for example, by http://web.archive.org/20090806185021/www.international.ucla.edu/burkle/article.asp?parentid=2198, which contains a common version of the story, where Ferguson says this while holding a bible and defending her objection to the teaching of Spanish in Texas public schools
According to http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003084.html, a variation on this quote is reported in the New York Times on May 23, 1881, but no record of Ferguson having said this, or anything like it, could be found
This quote and variations on it are often frequently attributed to others; one story, usually heard outside the United States, has an unnamed "U.S. congressman" saying it in a television interview; for example, see http://ontrapranur.blogspot.com/2008/05/if-english-was-good-enough-for-jesus.html
Misattributed

Diogenes Laertius