HKB
2 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: equity, mercy, and pardon · unjust laws · treaties, truces, and peacemaking · remedy worse than evil · government remedy too slow · custom and unwritten law · crime and punishment · counter-friction against government · contracts, oaths, and obligation · break unjust laws · break the law
Usually: argument (2) · injustice endured (2) · exhortation (2) · crisis of belief (1) · censure (1) · skepticism (1)
“If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; 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.” Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience · precept
“Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience · precept
Thoreau presents unjust laws as grounds for immediate transgression, argues the government makes remedies worse, rejects petitions as too slow, and states that the Constitution itself is the evil needing resistance.
not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided states and churches, it divides families; aye, it divides the *individual*, separating the diabolical in him from the divine. 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 …
He argues that unjust laws should be broken immediately when reform via persuasion fails, since the government worsens the remedy, and urges life to act as counter-friction to stop the injustice machine.
not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided states and churches, it divides families; aye, it divides the *individual*, separating the diabolical in him from the divine. 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 …