Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? ... It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, as so much for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. -- Henry David ThoreauFirst published in 1849. Civil Disobedience argues that people should not permit governments to overrule their consciences, and that giving in to government when it is wrong make us, by default, agents of that injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his opposition to slavery and the Mexican-American War.
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Related Readings and Links:
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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