evidence: FACT CHECK: Did Thomas Jefferson Say, ‘Most Bad Government Has Grown Out Of Too Much Government’? [...] "Most bad government has grown out of too much government," reads the alleged quote. [...] A slightly longer version of the quote says, "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government." It appears to have originated in a series of lectures delivered by politician John Sharp Williams. The speeches were published in 1913 in the form of a book titled "Thomas Jefferson: His Permanent Influence on American Institutions." The book contains the phrase in question, but the lectures were written about Jefferson, not by him.