![]() 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 they will have. 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. ![]() There will never be a 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. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.Ĭivil Disobedience (1849) Unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. ![]() The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual.Ĭivil Disobedience (1849) is an essay by Henry David Thoreau expressing his belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. ![]()
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