The quotations of

Henry David Thoreau

American essayist, poet, and philosopher

1817–1862

81 quotes, most often on Life & Death, Government and Money. Part of the Writers collection.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison… the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor.
Civil Disobedience (1849)
- Government
- Justice
I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- America
- Government
Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
- Morality
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.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
- War & Peace
The State never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
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. 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.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Freedom
- Government
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Government
- Justice
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.
Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Freedom
- Government

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