Henry David Thoreau
American philosopher and writer (1817 to 1862); graduated from Harvard in 1837; lived at Walden Pond for two years and two months; author of the essay Civil Disobedience.
Henry David Thoreau did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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A government that deliberately enacts and persists in injustice will eventually become the laughing-stock of the world
A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.
gutenberg.orgSaid 4 Jul 1854This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 8 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
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A government that deliberately enacts and persists in injustice will eventually become the laughing-stock of the world
A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
Law will never make people free; people have to make the law free
The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free. They are the lovers of law and order, who observe the law when the government breaks it.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
Whoever can discern truth has a higher authority than the highest judge who can discern only law
Whoever can discern truth has received his commission from a higher source than the chiefest justice in the world, who can discern only law. He finds himself constituted judge of the judge.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
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In this country the press exerts a greater and more harmful influence than the church did at its worst
I believe that, in this country, the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence than the church did in its worst period.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
People are to be human beings first, and Americans only late and when convenient
I would remind my countrymen, that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
A righteous reform cannot be achieved by expediency; in morals there is no sliding uphill
But there is no such thing as accomplishing a righteous reform by the use of "expediency." There is no such thing as sliding up hill. In morals, the only sliders are backsliders.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
A country's fate depends less on how people vote than on what kind of people they are each day
The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls,-the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
Good government makes life more valuable and bad government makes it less valuable
The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable,-of a bad one, to make it less valuable.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers Said 4 Jul 1854
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