“Resistance to Civil Government” Essay In “Resistance to Civil Government”, Henry David Thoreau tells his audience “that government is best which governs least.” Thoreau was very skeptical of the government, he thought that people shouldn’t follow the law but should do what they believe is right. The message that I got from his was that people were conforming to the norm and following the laws simply because it is the law. His purpose was to tell his audience how he practiced civil disobedience which is when you disobey the law when you don't think is just, and persuade others to live that way too. Thoreau saw civil disobedience as a better method of dealing with an unfair government than voting and passing laws. He didn’t think that …show more content…
He practiced civil disobedience in his own life, for example one time he refused to pay a poll-tax for 6 years and even spent a night in jail because of it. However, he still continued with his way of thinking and was still determined to get his message across. “I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was.” Throughout Thoreau’s essay my favorite quote was “I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves.” Overall, Thoreau wanted people to concentrate and follow their own conscience and moral compass instead of the laws of the government. He thinks that everyone is obligated to do what they believe is the right thing instead of the lawful thing. Even if one person doing something might not seem like a big deal if more people join in it can cause the change that they want to achieve. “For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done