Civil Disobedience Quotes

“In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.”

“How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.”

“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.”

“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”

“The practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.”

“If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself.”

“Oh for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through!”

“The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.”

“A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.”

“What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”

“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”

“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?”

“Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.”

“The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.”

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator?”

“Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.”

“Unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”

“He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.”

“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.”

“It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.”