Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849).
The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a fool are by his passions.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719), “Spare Time” (Essays and Tales, 1888), Part Two.
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
Henry David Thoreau, Journals (1847).
Écrasez l’infâme!
Make War on Injustice!
Voltaire’s rallying cry, launched in his Philosophical Dictionary (1764) — literally, ‘Crush the infamous!’, but more idiomatically translated as ‘Make War on Injustice!’ or ‘Destroy Bigotry!’
Remember, to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.
Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), p. 12.
Whatever pretended pessimists in search of notoriety may say, most people are naturally kind, at heart.
James Branch Cabell, The Cream of the Jest: A Comedy of Evasion (1917).
Let natural consequences teach responsible behavior. One of the kindest things we can do is to let the natural or logical consequences of people’s actions teach them responsible behavior. They may not like it or us, but popularity is a fickle standard by which to measure character development.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.
François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), aka Voltaire, in a letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville.
I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.
Zora Neale Hurston, in a letter to Countee Cullen.
Values are social norms — they’re personal, emotional, subjective, and arguable. All of us have values. Even criminals have values. The question you must ask yourself is, Are your values based upon principles? In the last analysis, principles are natural laws — they’re impersonal, factual, objective and self-evident. Consequences are governed by principles and behavior is governed by values; therefore, value principles!