Henry David Thoreau Quotations: GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.—"Civil Disobedience"
It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.—"Civil Disobedience"
It is not so important that many should be as good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.—"Resistance to Civil Government"
It is not to be forgotten, that while the law holds fast the thief and murderer, it lets itself go loose.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Law never made men a whit more just.—"Resistance to Civil Government"
Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.—"Resistance to Civil Government"
Men talk of freedom! How many are free to think? free from fear, from perturbation, from prejudice?—Journal, 6 May 1858
New Hampshire courts have lately been deciding—as if it was for them to decide—whether the top of Mt. Washington belonged to A or to B; and, it begin decided in favor of B, as I hear, he went up one winter with the proper officer and took formal possession of it. But I think that the top of Mt. Washington should not be private property; it should be left unappropriated for modesty and reverence’s sake, or if only to suggest that earth has higher uses than we put her to.—Journal, 3 January 1861
Nobody legislates for me for the way would be not to legislate at all.—Journal, 23 March 1853
O how I laugh when I think of my vague, indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it—for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.—Thoreau to H. G. O. Blake, 6 December 1856
