Send a Quote Enter a brief message. SendOk2 “There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” ~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American author, poet, philosopher, polymath, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and transcendentalistSource: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849 (original title: Resistance to Civil Goverment)