The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? — 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
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. — 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
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
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. — 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
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
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
Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? — 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
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
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
We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. We do not care for the Bible, but we… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
That excitement about Kossuth, consider how characteristic, but superficial, it was!--only another kind of politics or dancing. Men were making speeches to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Generally speaking, the political news, whether domestic or foreign, might be written today for the next ten years with sufficientaccuracy. Most revolutions… — 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
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
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
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
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
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
“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 hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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
“Those who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts.” — 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
I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government — 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
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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