That quote, while frequently attributed to Jefferson, was probably never written by him. The earliest attribution for a similar quote is from 1837, and in the c

That quote, while frequently attributed to Jefferson, was probably never written by him. The earliest attribution for a similar quote is from 1837, and in the current form it comes from Thoreau in 1849 -- Civil Disobedience. http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/government-best-which-governs-least-quotation http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/gove...