Actually I have heard it attributed to both Paine and Jefferson . But I think it wrongly credited to Jefferson ;and I have not seen any solid proof that it is a Paine quote; although he is widely credited with it on the net ;without reference to a pamphlet or other writing by him .
Thoreau wrote in
On Civil Disobedience Quote:
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I heartily accept the motto,—“That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—“That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
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The motto he was paraphrasing was
“The best government is that which governs least.”
. This was the motto of the publication
The United States Magazine and Democratic Review Quote:
"That government is best which governs least." -- This quotation has not been found anywhere in Jefferson's recorded writings or speeches. It first saw print in 1837, in the editor's introduction to the first issue of United States Magazine and Democratic Review, and Henry David Thoureau later used it, without attribution, in "On Civil Disobedience." (See the discussion in Paul F. Boller & John George, They Never Said It, Oxford Univ. Press, 1989, p. 56, and in Paul F. Boller, Not So!, Oxford Univ. Press, 1995, pp. 49-51.)
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http://www.geocities.com/peterrobert...Jefferson.html
Emerson is also cited as saying
"the less government we have, the better"
Call it individualism if you must. People have rights not groups or collectives. Free Governments are formed for the common defense of the individual ,not to provide for the individual.
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