On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau

One of the most important documents of American Political thought, Civil Disobedience eloquently states a position that has influenced the thinking of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and many figures of the 1960's protests against the Vietnam War. Thoreau argues that the progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.