| | 1 | Author: | Thoreau, Henry David | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Civil Disobedience  | | | | Published: | 1998 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best
which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up
to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally
amounts to this, which also I believe — "That government is
best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared
for it, that will be the kind of government which the will
have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most
governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes,
inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against
a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve
to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing
government. The standing army is only an arm of the
standing government. The government itself, which is only
the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will,
is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the
people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war,
the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the
people would not have consented to this measure. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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