"Civil Disobedience," Thoreau's 1849 essay, justifies his decision to go to jail rather than pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican War. The opening lines are often quoted: "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 also I 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." Thoreau's ideas influenced both Gandhi and Martin Luther King.