Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them,…

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?

Sourced, Civil Disobedience
(1849)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

I hear beyond the range of sound,
I see beyond the range of sight,
New earths and skies and seas around,
And in my day the sun doth pale his light. - View Quote Details on I hear beyond the range of sound,
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He sounds, as it were, the fatal bottom of our organic existence, and yet claims not merely to accept the universe, as another Transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller, put it, but to rejoice in it…. To the dark immensity of material Nature’s indifference we can oppose only the brief light, like a lamp in a cabin, of our consciousness; the invigorating benison of Walden is to make us feel that the contest is equal, and fair. It has emerged over time as one of the great testaments of American individualism, assuring the New World, traditional reassurances failing, of the value, power, and beauty of the unfettered self. - View Quote Details on He sounds, as it were, the fatal bottom of our…
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Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul. - View Quote Details on Money is not required to buy one necessary of the…
She with one breath attunes the spheres,
And also my poor human heart. - View Quote Details on She with one breath attunes the spheres,
And also my…
The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God. - View Quote Details on The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God.
I do not know but it is too much to read one newspaper a week. I have tried it recently, and for so long it seems to me that I have not dwelt in my native region. The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me. You cannot serve two masters. It requires more than a day’s devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day. - View Quote Details on I do not know but it is too much to…
Men go to a fire for entertainment. When I see how eagerly men will run to a fire, whether in warm or in cold weather, by day or by night, dragging an engine at their heels, I’m astonished to perceive how good a purpose the level of excitement is made to serve. - View Quote Details on Men go to a fire for entertainment. When I see…
If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things. - View Quote Details on If you can speak what you will never hear, if…