QuoteProject
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
Henry David Thoreau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Disobedience is essential for true freedom, while blind obedience leads to enslavement.

Henry David Thoreau's quote emphasizes the idea that true liberty arises from disobedience to unjust laws and norms. In his view, those who blindly obey authorities are not exercising their freedom but rather submitting to a form of mental and moral slavery, thus losing their autonomy and ability to think critically about their lives and society.

Themes

DisobedienceLibertyObedienceFreedomSlavery

In practice

Example use cases

This quote is perfect for a speech on civil rights movements.

More from Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead

Similar quotes

Truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with.
Richard RortyRead
There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle afer cycle, by force and bloodshed.
Mark TwainRead
I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.
Michel De MontaigneRead
A craving for freedom and independence is generated only in a man still living on hope.
Albert CamusRead
God made only water, but man made wine.
Victor HugoRead
For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty.
Richard LeakeyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Henry David Thoreau | QuoteProject