Jeremy Keeshin

Civil Disobedience – Henry David Thoreau

Thesis: Government should not be interfering and forcing its conscience upon the
nation and the individual, it should be allowing more freedom to act justly.

Governments must be less overpowering and more accepting to the individual.

Governments are best which interfere the least in the lives of the men it governs
(235).
In their attempt to free people, governments only make them more restricted
(235).
Current governments interfere too much in the lives of society (236).
The government uses men like cogs to a machine (237).
Government does not let men exercise free judgment (237).
The best government is that which can more fully recognize the rights of the
individual (256).
Right and wrong is not what the government defines.
The opinion of the majority is not necessarily just (236).
Government only has power because it is physically the strongest (236).
Government should not represent the collective conscience of a nation (236).
People should go against laws that are unjust because they are the ones who are
acting justly (245).
Just men can justly in prison if it is the law that is wrong (245).
People should not sacrifice their conscience for government (246).
Government gets in the way of the lives of honest men (247).
Disobeying an unjust law and receiving a punishment is better than acting
unjustly (247).
People act on obsolete laws (255).
People are afraid to go against the establishment because they act conveniently.
Men have the power to resist the establishment (238).
Humans do not have their interests in the right places (239).
Voting is not doing enough to represent your opinion (240).
People act in the easiest path available to them; they cannot handle adversity
(240).
People do no care enough to right the wrongs of society (241).
People are content as long as someone else is doing the unwanted job (241).
Not all laws are fair, but still people choose to obey them because that is what is
easiest (242).
People should not wait for a majority opinion to act on their own opinion (244).
The world is run on what is easiest, not what is right (254).
People are too ready to conform to the ideas of the state (253).
You do not have to be a part of the society that you are placed in (248).
Jails are a fine lodge to keep away safely from the dangerous people in society
(249).