Reading notes from Civil Disobedience, by Henry D. Thoreau.

• The best government is the one that least governs.
• Strive for a better government at once.
• A government of majority rule cannot be based on justice.
• Must citizens give away their conscience to lawmakers?
• Our sole obligation is doing what we think is right.
• While a corporation has no conscience, a corporation of people with conscience is a corporation with conscience.
• The right to revolution. to refuse allegiance and to refuse the government.
• While it is said that the mass is not prepared to rule, the few are not much wiser or better than the many.
• Even voting for the right thing is doing nothing for it. It is like leaving things to chance, or the power of the majority.
• Should we obey unjust laws, should we try to change them, or immediately disobey them?
• Under a government that imprisons unjustly, the just belong in prison.
• A minority is powerless when it conforms to the majority, instead of pushing with all it's weight.
• The rich man is always sold to the institution that made him rich.
• As means increase, opportunities for authentic living decrease.
• The best thing you can do for your culture if you get rich is to carry what you entertained of doing as poor.
• If reason governs, poverty and misery are shameful. If unreason governs, riches and honors are shameful.
• Statespeople and law makers are so within the institution that they never view it from a distance.
• Their usefulness is within the limits and boundaries of the system.
• The progress from monarchy to limited monarchy to democracy is progress to genuine respect for every individual.
• Until states recognize individuals as their source of authority, they are never free and enlightened.