I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 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
While the Governor, and the Mayor, and countless officers of the Commonwealth are at large, the champions of liberty are imprisoned. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last. — 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
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that… — 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
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
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
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
In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 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
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
Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. — 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
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. — 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
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Image
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Image
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