Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Civil Disobedience

• I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Strength, Fashion, Individuality

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.12, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Song, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.27, Heron Dance Press

• Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Libertarian Party, Historical

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.23, Heron Dance Press

• If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Religious, Freedom

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

• Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Law, Unjust, Endeavor

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.79, Penguin

• f the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out... but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Government, Law, Let It Go

  "Civil Disobedience". Book by Henry David Thoreau, 1849.

• That government is best which governs least.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

• If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Plant, Dies

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.83, Penguin

• Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Machines, Life Is, Friction

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

• Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

  Henry David Thoreau

  War, Men, History

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

• Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Men, Voting

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.6, Hayes Barton Press

• The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life Changing, Thinking, Assuming

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

• I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay, if one HONESTman, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Names, Abolition Of Slavery

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.10, Hayes Barton Press

• . . . we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Respect, Men, Firsts

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

• It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Respect, Law

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

• Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Machines, Life Is, Friction

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.9, Hayes Barton Press

• If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Office, Wish, Done

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.294, Simon and Schuster

• All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Character, Thinking, Voting

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.101, Simon and Schuster

• Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.... If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Blood, Years

  Henry David Thoreau (2017). “Walden and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, p.299, Library of Alexandria

• A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the
  great sense, and men, serve the state with their conscience also,
  and so necessarily resist it for the most part, and they are
  commonly treated as enemies by it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Hero, Men, Enemy

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.3, Cambridge University Press

• It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Hands, Giving

  Henry David Thoreau (2002). “The Essays of Henry D. Thoreau: Selected and Edited by Lewis Hyde”, p.207, North Point Press

• Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Thinking, Degrees

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.3, Hayes Barton Press

• 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. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Believe, Men, Politics

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

• All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Voting, Moral, Vote

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.101, Simon and Schuster

• If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Wisdom, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.7, Hayes Barton Press

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