Resistance to Civil Government (Primary source)
Resistance to Civil Government, commonly known as Civil Disobedience, is a foundational essay advocating for the moral responsibility to oppose unjust laws and government actions. Written after Thoreau’s imprisonment for refusing to pay a poll tax in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War, the essay argues that individuals must prioritize conscience over blind obedience to the state.
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“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
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“Remember that Time is Money.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“The law holds with equal sureness for all right action. Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to deploy and concentrate at the right time.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source