Henry David Thoreau "The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" (1817-1862) The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus [7], etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw, or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the State chiefly with their heads; and, as the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," [8] but leave that office to his dust at least: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849):Read Online at Panarchy at Wikipedia Who he Influenced Mahatma Gandhi Martin Luther King, Jr. John F. Kennedy Leo Tolstoy William O. Douglas A Walk to Wachusett (1842): Read Online at The Walden Woods Project A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849): Read Online at Project Gutenberg On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849):Read Online at Panarchy at Wikipedia Read Walking in Wikisource at UPENN Slavery in Massachusetts (1854):Read Online at Thoreau Reader Walden (1854):Read Online at Project Gutenberg in Thoreau Reader A Plea for Captain John Brown (1860):Read Online at Project Gutenberg Excursions (1863) Read Online at Project Gutenberg read Autumnal Tints Excerpt Life Without Principle: Read Online at Wikisource The Maine Woods (1864) Read Online at the Thoreau Reader Cape Cod (1865):Read online at the Thoreau Reader Read Excerpt Ch. 8 The Highland Light at Wikisource Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881) Summer (1884) Winter (1888) Autumn (1892) Miscellanies (1894) Journal of Henry David Thoreau (1906) ( Faith in a Seed, A Yankee in Canada) The Landlord - courtesy of Wikisource. Night and Moonlight - courtesy of Wikisource. Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree Works by Henry David Thoreau at Project Gutenberg - Thoreau's Life & Writings (at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods) Copyright © 2005 Chris Center All rights reserved.