I just finished re-reading Civil Disobedience and Other Essays by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Much of Thoreau's insights ring true over 140 years later. Some good quotes I read along the way..."I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."
"I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward."
"Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform."
"Why does it (the government) not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?"
"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
"A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight."
"But the rich man--not to make any invidious comparison--is always sold to the institution which makes him rich."
"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."
"Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible."
