Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [901-920] of 1002 Responsibility quotesResponsibility QuotesResponsibility Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?~ Henry David Thoreau There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.~ Henry David Thoreau I heartily accept the motto, that government is best which governs least ... Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also 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.~ Henry David Thoreau Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.~ Henry David Thoreau 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?~ Henry David Thoreau To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, 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. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? -- in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.~ Henry David Thoreau The first duty of love is to listen.~ Paul Tillich The things that are wrong with the country today are the sum total of all the things that are wrong with us as individuals.~ Charles W. Tobey The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.~ Alvin Toffler Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi It's the misfortune of all Countries, that they sometimes lie under a unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the ambition of their Governors, and to fight for what's their own. If those in government are heedless of reason, the people must patiently submit to Bondage, or stand upon their own Defence; which if they are enabled to do, they shall never be put upon it, but their Swords may grow rusty in their hands; for that Nation is surest to live in Peace, that is most capable of making War; and a Man that hath a Sword by his side, shall have least occasion to make use of it.~ John Trenchard [I]f we won’t choose to pay the price of liberty, then by default we shall suffer the cost of servitude -- whether it be the iron chains of a tyrannical oligarchy or the regulatory chains of unelected, faceless bureaucrats. When we witness our neighbors abused by tyrants, will we skulk away and hope we’re not next? Or will we stand by them and challenge -- as freedom-loving Americans -- the tyranny of lawless leaders.~ Phil Trieb When even one American -- who has done nothing wrong -- is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.~ Harry S. Truman Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.~ Mao Tse-Tung If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.~ Bishop Desmond Tutu [N]o country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.~ Mark Twain Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.~ Mark Twain Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.~ Mark Twain Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.~ Mark Twain My kind of loyalty was to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.~ Mark Twain Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print