Introduction to
“Civil Disobedience”
Thoreau and how his ideas still
change the world!
Henry David Thoreau
 “That
government is
best which
governs least.”

This aphorism is sometimes
attributed to Thomas Jefferson
or Thomas Paine but it was
actually written by Thoreau!
Thoreau’s Night in Jail
“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?”
--Henry David Thoreau
Civil Disobedience

is an essay by Henry David Thoreau that was first
published in 1849. It argues that people should
not permit governments to overrule or atrophy
their consciences, and that people have a duty to
avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the
government to make them the agents of injustice.
Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with
slavery and the Mexican-American War.
From “Civil Disobedience”

“…it is not a man's duty, as a matter of
course, to devote himself to the eradication
of any, even the most enormous wrong; he
may still properly have other concerns to
engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to
wash his hands of it, and . . . not to give it
practically his support."
Antigone – whose name means
“unbending”
 “An
unjust law
is no law at
all.”
Mohandas Gandhi

“Thoreau was a great writer,
philosopher, poet, and withal a
most practical man, that is, he
taught nothing he was not
prepared to practice in himself.
He was one of the greatest and
most moral men America has
produced. At the time of the
abolition of slavery movement, he
wrote his famous essay ‘On the
Duty of Civil Disobedience’ He
went to jail for the sake of his
principles and suffering humanity.
His essay has, therefore, been
sanctified by suffering. Moreover,
it is written for all time. Its incisive
logic is unanswerable.”
Rosa Parks and Tibetan Monks

“Civil disobedience - the
deliberate violation of a
law for a social purpose.
To violate a law for
individual gain, for a
private purpose, is an
ordinary criminal act; it
is not civil
disobedience.”
--Howard Zinn
Martin Luther King Jr.

“During my student days I read
Henry David Thoreau’s essay On
Civil Disobedience for the first
time. Here, in this courageous
New Englander's refusal to pay
his taxes and his choice of jail
rather than support a war that
would spread slavery’s territory
into Mexico, I made my first
contact with the theory of
nonviolent resistance. Fascinated
by the idea of refusing to
cooperate with an evil system, I
was so deeply moved that I
reread the work several times.”
Letter from Birmingham Jail

“Injustice anywhere is
a threat to justice
everywhere. We are
caught in an
inescapable network
of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of
destiny. Whatever
affects one directly
affects all indirectly.”
Nelson Mandela

“During my lifetime I have
dedicated myself to this
struggle of the African people,
I have fought against white
domination, and I have fought
against black domination. I
have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in
which all persons live together
in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal
which I hope to live for and to
achieve. But if it needs be it is
an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.”
Where do you see civil disobedience
today?

“..if the injustice is part of
the necessary friction of
the machine of
government, let it
go…perchance it will wear
smooth – certainly the
machine will wear out. 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. Let your life be a
counter friction to stop the
machine.”
The Three Questions: Things to
think about as you read



Who is ultimately more important; the
individual, the citizens as a whole, or the
government?
Can we reach the government that Thoreau
advocates?
Under what circumstances should
conscience outweigh the law?
Directions for CD

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil
This is a very helpful website that has parts of the document
annotated. There is also a link on my website under
Transcendentalism and Civil Disobedience.
Directions: For Thursday:
 Read, annotate, and understand pages 1-4.
 As you read, annotate pages 1-4, writing down your observations
and noting specific quotations with pages numbers. You will want
to use a page for each of The Three Questions. These questions
will not only keep you more focused while reading a rather dense
document, but will also be the basis of a short answer question in
which you are required to use quotations.
For Monday: Do the same for pages 5-8. Add to your notes for The
Three Questions.