Resistance to Civil Government

By Henry David Thoreau

In this classic text, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau examined the morality of the state's behavior and found it wanting. Thoreau proclaimed the value of the individual's conscience above that of the law, and urged readers to immediate and practical action against an unjust state by withdrawing their support, both financial and intellectual, from its actions. "If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose," Thoreau warned. And if it becomes necessary to go to prison to resist the state, Thoreau added, a virtuous man should not hesitate to do so. His words would eventually help to inspire Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King to their own acts of nonviolent resistance to the state.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0D91YBK84
• ISBN13: 9798329503845
• Release Date: July 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 27 Pages
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.1" x 5.5"