"What is wanted is men of principle,..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
What is wanted is men of principle, who recognize a higher law than the decision of the majority. The marines and the militia whose bodies were used lately were not men of sense nor of principle; in a high moral sense they were not men at all.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.”
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
“Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.”
More on Principle
More on Morality
“Character - not wealth, power, or position - is the supreme word.”
“Caesar was a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.”
“Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George the Fourth and continue the slaves of prejudice? What is it to be born free and equal, and not to live? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?”