Sign in with Facebook
“If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.”
― Civil Disobedience
― Civil Disobedience
“See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.
What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”
― Walden or, Life in the Woods
What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”
― Walden or, Life in the Woods
“I wish my countrymen to consider, that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual, without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length ever become the laughing-stock of the world.”
― Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
― Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
“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? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
― Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
― Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”
― On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
― On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Beth’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Beth’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
2,473 books
|
117 friends
1,047 books
|
44 friends
217 books
|
394 friends
368 books
|
28 friends
1 book
|
2 friends
19 books
|
32 friends
739 books
|
21 friends
3 books
|
114 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Beth
Lists liked by Beth
