evidence: Sources consulted: Searching on the phrase "do you want to know who you are" [...] Earliest known appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: 2003[3] [...] Status: We currently have no evidence to confirm that Thomas Jefferson ever said or wrote, "Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. This statement can be unequivocally attributed to Witold Gombrowicz. How it came to be attributed to Thomas Jefferson is unclear.