Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

they cannot spare the protection of the existing government, and they dread the consequences of disobedience to it to their property and families.

I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.

The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor.

Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority;

Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.

Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war;

But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform?

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.