On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humanity; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more,…

His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all tim, he never once glances at the subject.

They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency.

If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to save his prope…

It is for no particular item in the tax bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man a musket to shoot one with the dollar is innocent but…

我被关进监狱时，正要去鞋匠那里补一只鞋。第二天早上被放出来后，我接着去完成我的差事，穿上补好的鞋后，我加入了一个越橘采摘者的队伍，他们迫不及待地想让我来带队。

这可能是镇上唯一一栋有人写诗的房子

could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated my as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up.

Confucius said: “If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are subjects of shame.”

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.

Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.

Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I thin…

最广泛、最普遍的错误需要最无私的美德来维持。爱国主义的美德通常容易受到轻微的指责，而高贵的人最有可能受到这种指责。那些在反对政府的性格和措施的同时，屈服于它的忠诚和支持的人，无疑是它最认真的支持者，也是最严重的改革障碍。有些人正在请求国家解散联盟，无视总统的要求。他们为什么不自己解散他们与国家之间的联盟，拒绝向国家的国库缴纳他们的份额？他们与国家的关系不就像国家与联盟的关系一样吗？阻止他们反抗国家的理由，不也阻止了他们反抗联盟吗？

大多数人最终投票废除奴隶制时，那是因为他们对奴隶制漠不关心，或者是因为他们投票废除的奴隶制所剩无几。到那时，他们就是唯一的奴隶。只有通过投票来维护自己自由的选民，才能加速奴隶制的废除。

How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also.