Henry David Thoreau Quotes

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.

We can't fix the real problems if we only cauterize and don't treat the roots of evil.

The evils which are complained of can not be eradicated at once; the work must be gradual.

Why was so much done in remedying the evil instead of avoiding it in the first place?

Every day which passes over the unredressed wrongs of any [minority] which a republic holds in her bosom; every day which brings persecution on those who act out of the principles in which all profess; every day which adds a sanction to brute force and impairs the sacredness of law; every day which prolongs impunity to the oppressor and discouragement to the oppressed is a more evil day than that which should usher in the work of renovation.

If you are on the wrong side of society you can’t win.

Reformation must begin with the GREAT, or it will never be effectual. Their example is the fountain whence the vulgar draw their habits, actions, and characters. To expect to reform the poor while the opulent are corrupt, is to throw odors into the stream while the springs are poisoned.

In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil.

The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion

… all the baggage of a paternalistic society will have to be thrown overboard.

People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.

I didn't wake up and decide to become an activist. But you couldn't help notice the inequities, the injustices. It was all around you.

It's funny how people who ain't never been down there can think that America is so fair and that we should be alright. It's funny that the people who have their foot on our neck are telling us, 'Get up. What's wrong with you?'

I'm a harsh critic of the status quo.

Education in this country is about how to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate racism.

Where the disease is most deeply seated, there it will be slowest in eradication. In the Northern States it was merely superficial and easily corrected. In the Southern, it is incorporated with the whole system and requires time, patience, and perseverance in the curative process. That it may finally be effected and its progress hastened, will be my last and fondest prayer.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know, And things need changin' everywhere you go

Social injustice is such a familiar phenomenon ... that it is readily regarded as something natural, even by its victims.

I am goddamned tired of listening to all this babble for reform. America is a hell of a success. Why tinker with it? The country don't need any legislation.

If you try to smooth out society with a hot iron, you're liable to drive out all talent.

Give me a prejudice and I will move the world.

… the only way to remedy what everyone concedes has grown to be a great evil.

An issue between a people and a class

Too many things that happen in this country give the impression that our system is blind in the right eye.

Social change can be painful for all involved—oppressor and oppressed.