Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [21-40] of 41 Disobedience quotesDisobedience QuotesDisobedience Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes If the innocent honest Man must quietly quit all he has for Peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of Peace there will be in the World, which consists only in Violence and Rapine; and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of Robbers and Oppressors.~ John Locke ... whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence. ... [Power then] devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty, and, by the Establishment of a new Legislative (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own Safety and Security, which is the end for which they are in Society.~ John Locke Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.~ John Locke Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.~ H. L. Mencken If you stop struggling, then you stop life.~ Huey P. Newton The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man. Unless he understands this, he does not grasp the essential meaning of his life.~ Huey P. Newton We were trying to increase the conflict that was already happening... we felt that we would take the conflict to so high a level that some change had to come.~ Huey P. Newton When we have begun to take charge of our lives, to own ourselves, there is no longer any need to ask permission of someone.~ George O'Neil [T]he people as ultimate sovereigns, retain the ultimate power -- and even the duty -- to overthrow any government that fails to respect their authority.~ Glenn Harlan Reynolds [A]nd obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men and of the human frame, A mechanized automaton.~ Percy Bysshe Shelley Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame, A mechanized automaton.~ Percy Bysshe Shelley Heretics were often most bitterly persecuted for their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness. Why can they not yield on so trifling a matter?~ Leo Shestov To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton Disobedience or evasion of a constitutional mandate may not be tolerated, even though such disobedience may, at least temporarily, promote in some respects the best interests of the public.~ State v. Board of Examiners The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic in our scheme. Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a speech, to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble, it need not be honored when it’s invalid on its face.~ Justice Potter Stewart As for adopting the ways which the state has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone.~ Henry David Thoreau If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.~ Henry David Thoreau Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.~ Henry David Thoreau Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense.~ Mark Twain The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist unconstitutional laws without overturning the government.~ Daniel Webster Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print