Henry David Thoreau Quotations: GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Why should not we, who have renounced the king’s authority, have our national preserves, where no villages need be destroyed, in which the bear and panther, and some even of the hunter race, may still exist, and not be "civilized off the face of the earth,"—our forests, not to hold the king’s game merely, but to hold and preserve the king himself also, the lord of creation,—not for idle sport or food, but for inspiration and our own true re-creation?—The Maine Woods
Why will men be such fools as to trust to lawyers for a moral reform?—Journal, 16 June 1854
You are expected to do your duty, not in spite of everything but one, but in spite of everything.—Journal, 24 September 1859
You glide along the distant wood-side, full of joy and expectation, seeing nothing but beauty, hearing nothing but music, as free as the fox-colored sparrow . . .—Journal, 27 January 1858
