Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders …?

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?

A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.

... The future is very markedly in your hands, its value and its moral standing in the world and among ourselves. If you will take the power you have and use it, I have no fear of the outcome of the future.

Reason and right give the quickest despatch.

Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique.

There is no man more dangerous, in a position of power, than he who refuses to accept as a working truth the idea that all a man does should make for rightness and soundness, that even the fixing of a tariff rate must be moral.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

I do what I think is right.

A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

I came into office to do what was correct, not to see what was politically expedient to get re-elected.

Men have the power of thinking that they may avoid sin.

Learn what is true in order to do what is right.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose between the two.

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

When I entered Mexico (City) my own will was the law; I commanded the public force...and who compelled me to divide the powers? Myself, and myself alone, because I thought it was right.

Moral liberty is the power of following, in all circumstances, our sense of right and wrong, or of acting in conformity to our reflecting and moral principles, without being controlled by any contrary principles.

The strongest is never strong enough to always be the master unless he transforms strength into right…

My responsibility is to make judgments about hard, complex issues that I believe to be right.

Integrity in the Moment of Choice: Quality of life depends on what happens in the space between stimulus and response.

Consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but law, morality and leadership demand it. Without consistency, there is privilege.

It isn't polls or public opinion at the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership--men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right that makes epochs in the history of the world.