Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Law is justice. In this proposition a simple and enduring government can be conceived. And I defy anyone to say how even the thought of revolution, of insurrection, of the slightest uprising could arise against a government whose organized force was confined only to suppressing injustice.

There is no power without justice.

Unjust force can never give any just dominion.

A government is not legitimate merely because it exists.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

We Mexicans believe in the force of the law, not in the law of force

Most men appear to think that the art of despotic government is statesmanship, and what men affirm to be unjust and inexpedient in their own case they are not ashamed of practicing towards others; they demand just rule for themselves, but where other men are concerned they care nothing about it. Such behavior is irrational; unless the one party is, and the other is not, born to serve, in which case men have a right to command, not indeed all their fellows, but only those who are intended to be subjects; just as we ought not to hunt mankind, whether for food or sacrifice . .

I'm happy to respect authority when it's genuine authority, based on moral or intellectual or even technical superiority. I'm eager to follow a hero if we can find one. But I tend to resist or evade any kind of authority based merely on the power to coerce. Government, for example. The Army tried to train us to salute the uniform, not the man. Failed. I will salute the man, maybe, if I think he's worthy of it, but I don't salute uniforms anymore.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices.

In every human society, there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery. The intent of good laws is to oppose this effort and to diffuse their influence universally and equally.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes

In matters of government, justice means force as well as virtue.

Force cannot change right.

Might and right govern everything in this world; might till right is ready.

If a ruler is just he must have acquired power properly and used it properly.

Since all people do not do their duty and some, on the contrary, commit injustices, for the sake of keeping order in society, injustices and all enterprises against this order must be repressed: which was possible only through authority given to some over others, and which made government necessary.

Justice and fairness and history are not necessarily decisive in what happens.

I am thankful that the President of the United States has given me permission to tell my story. I hope that he and those in authority under him will read my story and judge whether my people have been rightly treated

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

The firm basis of government is justice, not pity.

It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical.

There's lots of law these days, but not much justice.

The most basic building block of any successful government is, first and foremost, a moral authority over the people it leads.