What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. “If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth–certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Gandhi and Civil Disobedience – Constitutional Rights FoundationĬivil Disobedience and Non-Violent Action – The University of Texas Politics Project Quotes Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedienceĭocuments of Freedom – Civil Discourse and Petitioningĭocuments of Freedom – The Civil Rights MovementĬivil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (full version)

But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil.

They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. “Unjust laws exist shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.

Thoreau gandhi