About the author
American essayist, naturalist, and philosopher (1817–1862). Written after a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax that funded slavery and the Mexican–American War, Civil Disobedience (1849) argues that individuals must not lend themselves to injustice and that conscience outranks the law. The essay later shaped Gandhi's and Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophies of nonviolent resistance.
Synopsis
An essay arguing that individuals should not obey laws or governments that violate conscience and justice.
Quote to notice
Direct quote · Public domain“That government is best which governs least.”
Thoreau pushes liberal individualism toward resistance: the state should not command moral obedience when it acts unjustly.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Hobbes or constitutionalist arguments about order and legal authority.
Reading note
Short and accessible. Useful for connecting liberalism, anarchism, and protest politics.
Best paired with
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan.