"The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union,(1) to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves — the union between themselves and the State — and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)
Civil Disobedience (1849) is an essay by Henry David Thoreau expressing his belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.
42 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Civil Disobedience (Thoreau) →
Related Quotes
"The lawyer's truth is not truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with herself,…"
"I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to m…"
"To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no …"
"The mass of men serve the state […], not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing arm…"
"He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partial…"
"How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace …"
"All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government,…"
"All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a…"
"We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not mater…"
"Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. The…"