Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Politicians

• 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

• Others - as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders - serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few - as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men - serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part.

  Henry David Thoreau

  God, Hero, Men

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

• We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defenses only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance be really free.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Children, Freedom, Liberty

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.117, Cambridge University Press

• Prominent and influential editors, accustomed to deal with politicians, men of an infinitely lower grade, say, in their ignorance,that he acted "on the principle of revenge." They do not know the man. They must enlarge themselves to conceive of him.... They have got to conceive of a man of faith and of religious principle, and not a politician or an Indian; of a man who did not wait till he was personally interfered with or thwarted in some harmless business before he gave his life to the cause of the oppressed.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Religious, Revenge, Ignorance

  Henry David Thoreau (2007). “My Thoughts Are Murder to the State: Thoreau's Essays on Political Philosophy”, p.47, David M Gross

• The sort of morality which the priests inculcate is a very subtle policy, far finer than the politicians', and the world is very successfully ruled by them as the policemen.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Power, World, Morality

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.96, Penguin

• The fact which the politician faces is merely that there is less honor among thieves than was supposed, and not the fact that theyare thieves.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Honor, Thieves, Faces

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.303, Simon and Schuster

• The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Government, Rats, Lasts

  Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.115, David M Gross

• Perhaps anxious politicians may prove that only seventeen white men and five negroes were concerned in the late enterprise; but their very anxiety to prove this might suggest to themselves that all is not told. Why do they still dodge the truth? They are so anxious because of a dim consciousness of the fact, which they do not distinctly face, that at least a million of the free inhabitants of the United States would have rejoiced if it had succeeded. They at most only criticise the tactics.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, White, Anxiety

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.142, Cambridge University Press

• We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. We do not care for the Bible, but we do care for the newspaper.At any meeting of politicianshow impertinent it would be to quote from the Bible! how pertinent to quote from a newspaper or from the Constitution!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Religious, People, Religion

• No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Men, America

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.301, Simon and Schuster

• Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month's labor in the farmer's almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Men, Style

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.517, Simon and Schuster

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