Politics Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

That government is best which governs least.

— Henry David Thoreau

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.

— Henry David Thoreau

Politics is but a narrow field.

— Henry David Thoreau

In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison.

— Henry David Thoreau

“That government is best that governs not at all.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Under a goverment which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison”

— Henry David Thoreau

So long as a man is faithful to himself, everything is in his favor, government, society, the very sun, moon, and stars.

— Henry David Thoreau

The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable; of a bad one, to make it less valuable.

— Henry David Thoreau

A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government.

— Henry David Thoreau

The authority of government . . . can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it.

— Henry David Thoreau

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.

— Henry David Thoreau

What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?

— Henry David Thoreau

What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!

— Henry David Thoreau

The newspapers are the ruling power. Any other government is reduced to a few marines at Fort Independence. If a man neglects…

— Henry David Thoreau

There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and…

— Henry David Thoreau

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another,…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and inhuman, that practically I have never fairly recognized that it concerns me…

— Henry David Thoreau

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if…

— Henry David Thoreau

The only government that I recognize--and it matters not how few are at the head of it, or how small its army--is…

— Henry David Thoreau

“Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step…

— Henry David Thoreau

To one who habitually endeavors to contemplate the true state of things, the political state can hardly be said to have any…

— Henry David Thoreau

“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

Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,--that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses…

— Henry David Thoreau

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate…

— Henry David Thoreau

I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit…

— Henry David Thoreau

“The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to— for I will cheerfully obey those who know and…

— Henry David Thoreau

America is said to be the arena on which the battle of freedom is to be fought; but surely it cannot be…

— Henry David Thoreau

“I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made…

— Henry David Thoreau

“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

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

Prominent and influential editors, accustomed to deal with politicians, men of an infinitely lower grade, say, in their ignorance,that he acted "on…

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

— Henry David Thoreau

I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

“Those who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

— Henry David Thoreau