Original title: Resistance to Civil Government 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.

Resistance to Civil Government, also called On the Duty of Civil Disobedience or Civil Disobedience, is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, first published in 1849.

By Henry David Thoreau 1849 heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.

Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one's conscience over the dictates of laws. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War.

2020年6月18日 · Resistance to Civil Government, called Civil Disobedience for short, is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849.

Thoreau opens Civil Disobedience with the maxim "That government is best which governs least," and he speaks in favor of government that does not intrude upon men's lives.

Thoreau claims to have felt free in jail, which is a contradictory sentiment because we assume prisoners to be captive. Thoreau's paradox suggests that freedom is a state of mind and an expression of principles, and therefore unrelated to physical confinement.

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. [2] A leading transcendentalist, [3] he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument in favor of citizen disobedience …

Henry David Thoreau begins “Civil Disobedience” by reflecting on the best form of government. He admits that he believes that the best government is one that governs “not at all.”

Although Thoreau’s writing achieved little fame during his lifetime, his essay on civil disobedience was later “re-discovered” by Mohandas Gandhi, who came across it while studying law at Oxford as a young man.