Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Taxes

• In 1848, Thoreau went to jail for refusing, as a protest against the Mexican war, to pay his poll tax. When RW Emerson came to bail him out, Emerson said, 'Henry, what are you doing in there?' Thoreau quietly replied, 'Ralph, what are you doing out there?'

  Henry David Thoreau

  War, Jail, Mexican

• 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

• If I deny the authority of the State when it presents my tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard, this makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Children, Men, Liberty

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.82, Penguin

• To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Book, Athlete, Exercise

• 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

• If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man--not to make any invidious comparison--is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.... Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Money, Taken, Men

• When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Government, Giving, Haste

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

• It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdrawand stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with,--the dollar is innocent,--but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Fashion, War, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Miscellanies (Annotated Edition)”, p.94, Jazzybee Verlag

• I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Hair, Years

  Henry David Thoreau (2004). “Walden and Other Writings”, p.107, Bantam Classics

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