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
If private men are obliged to perform the offices of government, to protect the weak and dispense justice, then the government becomes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length ever become the laughing-stock of the world.” — 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
That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“I believe that, in this country, the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence than the church did in its… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Perhaps anxious politicians may prove that only seventeen white men and five negroes were concerned in the late enterprise; but their very… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
f 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
Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I find that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position, and despairs of his country, when his country… — 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
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
An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. The inefficient offer their… — 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
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
Those things which now most engage the attention of men, as politics and the daily routine, are, it is true, vital functions… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“This [...] government [...] has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man cam bend it… — 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
There is no such thing as accomplishing a righteous reform by the use of "expediency." There is no such thing as sliding… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Somehow strangely the vice of men gets well represented and protected but their virtue has none to plead its cause - nor… — 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
Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes… — 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
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
Give me a country where it is the most natural thing in the world for a government that does not understand you… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
They who have been bred in the school of politics fail nowand always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The sort of morality which the priests inculcate is a very subtle policy, far finer than the politicians', and the world is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If private men are obliged to perform the offices of government, to protect the weak and dispense justice, then the government becomesonly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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
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
![“This [...] government [...] has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man cam bend it to his will.” quote by Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/ded/henry-david-thoreau-20_life_this-government-has-not-the-vitality-and_2078256.jpg)
![“Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?” quote by Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/023/henry-david-thoreau-20_christ_why-does-it-government-always-crucify-ch_2832211.jpg)
