I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which…

I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

Sourced, Civil Disobedience
(1849)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. **Walden: Thoreau’s classic account of the two years he spent living in a cabin at Walden Pond. (Non-Fiction, 1854, 251 pages) - View Quote Details on Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth…
If you are describing any occurrence… make two or more distinct reports at different times… We discriminate at first only a few features, and we need to reconsider our experience from many points of view and in various moods in order to perceive the whole. - View Quote Details on If you are describing any occurrence… make two or more…
Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful. - View Quote Details on Men rush to California and Australia as if the true…
Thoreau’s thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, even in a bad woodcut, conveys some hint of the limitations of his mind and character. With his almost acid sharpness of insight, with his almost animal dexterity in act, there went none of that large, unconscious geniality of the world’s heroes. He was not easy, not ample, not urbane, not even kind; his enjoyment was hardly smiling, or the smile was not broad enough to be convincing; he had no waste lands nor kitchen-midden in his nature, but was all improved and sharpened to a point. “He was bred to no profession,” says Emerson; “he never married; he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. When asked at dinner what dish he preferred, he answered, ‘the nearest.’” So many negative superiorities begin to smack a little of the prig. From his later works he was in the habit of cutting out the humorous passages, under the impression that they were beneath the dignity of his moral muse; and there we see the prig stand public and confessed. - View Quote Details on Thoreau’s thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, even in a bad woodcut,…
Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. - View Quote Details on Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.
With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan, — mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards, — because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth, — because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufactures and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end. - View Quote Details on With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are…
My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go. - View Quote Details on My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As…
I am a parcel of vain strivings tied
By a chance bond together,
Dangling this way and that, their links
Were made so loose and wide,
Methinks,
For milder weather. - View Quote Details on I am a parcel of vain strivings tied
By a chance…
The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God. - View Quote Details on The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God.
Where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up. But the truth blows right on over it, nevertheless, and at length blows it down. - View Quote Details on Where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs…