Listing the best civil disobedience quotes is easy. Anyone can do it. I just did it. But it takes a great deal of tact to endorse its practice.
On the one hand, I do believe civil disobedience is a moral response to an immoral state of affairs; on the other, I hardly need some boneheaded misanthropes with a pile of bricks and a lust for shop windows to go blaming this article for their poor life choices.
Is it civil disobedience to create a ruckus for the sake of disrupting the status quo? No – even if your intentions for burning down a broad swath of Main Street are as pure as the driven snow, the act would amount to mere vandalism. It’s better to leave blowing up urban centers to the experts who allocate your tax dollars.
Civil disobedience is when you refuse to obey unjust laws or pay unjust taxes or fines. Whether or not you deem a law unjust depends wholly on your philosophy. For example, I do not believe that gun control is moral, let alone Constitutional, which is why I decided to become one of the tens of thousands of Americans who lost their entire gun collection during a freak boating accident. Likewise, I do not believe that taxation in any form is moral. That is why I legally changed my race to Irish Setter and bark whenever I see census takers approaching.
A word of caution before you go out civilly disobeying the government: It’s dangerous to do it alone. If you’ve got a lot of followers (or, if you’re not charismatic, are one of a lot of followers), then you’ve got a good chance at starting the 21st Century’s Salt March. But if you’re just some guy in a cabin who doesn’t want to fund wars of imperialism, then you’d better hope you look good wearing orange rompers.
Best Civil Disobedience Quotes
Wow! That was a lot of civil disobedience quotes! If you made it this far, then you deserve one more piece of advice about civil disobedience: Pouring milk all over your face after you get pepper sprayed doesn’t actually do anything. It just wastes milk, and there’s never an ethical justification for that.
Henry Hazlitt’s book Economics in One Lesson had a lasting impact on American discourse. Henry Hazlitt quotes have remained remarkably poignant to this day.
Liberty is invaluable, but it is always in jeopardy. Why should you care about keeping your liberty? Feel free to read our collection of liberty quotes and see.
An Austrian-British economist and philosopher, Friedrich August von Hayek remains a pivotal figure in the defense of classical liberalism – the assertion that civil liberties and economic freedom are paramount to civilization. Hayek quotes are worth reading and considering given the influence he’s had on freedom and liberty movements.
Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s great treatise on Objectivism, individualism, and reason. Don’t have time to read it? Check out the best Atlas Shrugged quotes here.