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
The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last. — 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
What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? — 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
“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
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
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
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
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 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
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 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
The fact which the politician faces is merely that there is less honor among thieves than was supposed, and not the fact… — 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
“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
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
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
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
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
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
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
