Henry David Thoreau, (1817-1862) American author, poet, philosopher, polymath, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and transcendentalist Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [31-47] of 47 Henry David Thoreau quotesHenry David Thoreau QuotesHenry David Thoreau Previous 30 quotes Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison ... the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.~ Henry David Thoreau If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.~ Henry David Thoreau Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.~ Henry David Thoreau Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.~ Henry David Thoreau 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. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I 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 the will have.~ Henry David Thoreau Law never made men a whit more just.~ Henry David Thoreau Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?~ Henry David Thoreau Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe... till we come to the hard bottom of rocks in place, which we can call reality.~ Henry David Thoreau The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.~ Henry David Thoreau Things do not change, we change.~ 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 Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way.~ Henry David Thoreau Wherever you may seek solitude, men will ferret you out and compel you to belong to their desperate company of oddfellows.~ Henry David Thoreau I make my own time. I make my own terms. I cannot see how God or Nature can ever get the start of me.~ Henry David Thoreau The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.~ Henry David Thoreau A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.~ Henry David Thoreau What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?~ Henry David Thoreau Previous 30 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print