"That government is best which governs least"
Governments do not fulfill their purpose so the people should be in charge.
"Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise."
Our government has not accomplished everything we give it credit for.
"It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate."
"I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."
Thoreau wants to see a government that would command the respect of all people.
"When the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted... to rule... because they are physically the strongest."
Rather than letting the majorities decide right and wrong, can't we let our conscience decide that?
"The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies."
Thoreau believes that men serve the American government with no control of their own bodies.
"A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be 'clay.'"
"If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man."
Thoreau writes that if you are not able to live the way you naturally would, then you will not survive.
"But if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law."
We should stand up for justice, even if it means doing what the government prohibits.
"Civil Disobedience" - Henry David Thoreau
Government Accomplishment