"Good men must not obey the laws..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good men must not obey the laws too well.
More by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Improve your spare moments and they will become the brightest gems in your life.”
“He that rides his hobby gently must always give way to him that rides his hobby hard.”
“I find it a great and fatal difference whether I court the Muse, or the Muse courts me. That is the ugly disparity between age and youth.”
More on Ethics
“One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole”
“For morality life is a war, and the service of the highest is a sort of cosmic patriotism which also calls for volunteers.”
“I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for this murder, and see that such actions are inconsistent with the poetic perception, however they may serve science, and will affect the quality of my observations. I pray that I may walk more innocently and serenely through nature. No reasoning whatever reconciles me to this act. It affects my day injuriously. I have lost some self-respect. I have a murderer's experience to a degree.”
More on Morality
“Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they're doing and saying in films right now just shouldn't be allowed. There's no dignity anymore and I think that's very important.”
“There is sufficient reward in the mere consciousness of a good action.”
“If however the law is so promulgated that it of necessity makes you an agent of injustices against another, then I say to you ... break the law.”