If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, ina government ship, with five hundred men and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The newspapers, I perceive, devote some of their columns specially to politics or government without charge; and this, one would say, is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I repeat that in this sense the most splendid court in Christendom is provincial, having authority to consult about Transalpine interests only,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A strange age of the world this, when empires, kingdoms, and republics come a-begging to a private man's door, and utter their… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
