Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Obedience

• 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

• The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Music, Spring, Pleasure

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.13, Heron Dance Press

• What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Men, One Direction

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.61, Heron Dance Press

• Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never were before in our lives, not by an opiate, but by some unconscious obedience to the all-just laws, so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves. . . .

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Lakes, Law

  Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.44, Courier Corporation

• It is not for a man to put himself in such an attitude to society, but to maintain himself in whatever attitude he find himself through obedience to the laws of his being, which will never be one of opposition to a just government, if he should chance to meet with such.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Attitude, Men, Law

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience”, p.229, Henry David Thoreau

• The Man of Genius may at the same time be, indeed is commonly, an Artist, but the two are not to be confounded. The Man of Genius,referred to mankind, is an originator, an inspired or demonic man, who produces a perfect work in obedience to laws yet unexplored. The artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected. There has been no man of pure Genius, as there has been none wholly destitute of Genius.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Artist, Law

  Henry David Thoreau (1975). “Early Essays and Miscellanies”, p.328, Princeton University Press

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