Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Revolution

• If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would ... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Years, Liberty

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.11, Hayes Barton Press

• All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Revolution, Unendurable

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.5, 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

• 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

• Concord River is remarkable for the gentleness of its current, which is scarcely perceptible, and some have referred to its influence the proverbial moderation of the inhabitants of Concord, as exhibited in the Revolution, and on later occasions.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Peace, Rivers, Revolution

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.8, Xist Publishing

• Generally speaking, the political news, whether domestic or foreign, might be written today for the next ten years with sufficientaccuracy. Most revolutions in society have not power to interest, still less alarm us; but tell me that our rivers are drying up, or the genus pine dying out in the country, and I might attend.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Country, Years, Rivers

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.532, Simon and Schuster

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