#Civil Disobedience Quotes

“Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.”

“We have the means to change the laws we find unjust or onerous. We cannot, as citizens, pick and choose the laws we will or will not obey.”

“Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of a people, especially when they have no effective voice in their own Government, but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion.”

“Disobedience that is wholly civil should never provoke retaliation.”

“Ours is a civil fight, and imprisonment as a civil prisoner has got to be earned by the strict observance of the programme.”

“Civil disobedience is a preparation for mute suffering.”

“I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both inperson and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait until they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.”

“Cast your whole vote, not a piece of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless when it conforms to a majority; but is irresistable when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose.”

“I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority? Would you have had him wait till that time came?--till you and I came over to him?”

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.”

“Disobedience, to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention.”

“Civil disobedience presupposes willing obedience of our self-imposed rules, and without it civil disobedience would be a cruel joke.”

“I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay, if one HONESTman, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.”

“Civil disobedience can only lead to strength and purity.”

“Mass civil disobedience is like an earthquake, a sort of general upheaval on the political plane.”

“Satyagraha does not begin and end with civil disobedience.”

“A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in thegreat sense, and men, serve the state with their conscience also,and so necessarily resist it for the most part, and they arecommonly treated as enemies by it.”

“No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances.”

“Non-co-operation and civil disobedience are but different branches of the same tree called satyagraha.”

“Individual civil disobedience was everybody's inherent right, like the right of self-defence in normal life.”

“Satyagraha and civil disobedience and fasts have nothing in common with the use of force, veiled or open.”

“Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" and "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?"”

“If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.”

“I'm thinking of love in action and not something where you say, "Love your enemies," and just leave it at that, but you love your enemies to the point that you're willing to sit-in at a lunch counter in order to help them find themselves. You're willing to go to jail.”

“If they are truly nonviolent, they must also realize that civil disobedience is an impossibility till the preliminary work of construction is done.”

“To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer-lasting, costly to the society but not wantonly destructive, moreover, it is more difficult for Government to quell it by superior force.”

“Ordinarily, a person leaving a courtroom with a conviction behind him would wear a somber face. But I left with a smile. I knew that I was a convicted criminal, but I was proud of my crime.”

“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?”

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. They do not know how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose.”

“Civil disobedience does not admit of any violence or countenancing of violence directly or indirectly.”

“Active nonviolence is necessary for those who will offer civil disobedience but the will and proper training are enough for the people to co-operate with those who are chosen for civil disobedience.”

“Civil disobedience and excitement and intoxication go ill together.”

“I care so deeply about this matter that I'm willing to take on the legal penalties, to sit in this prison cell, to sacrifice my freedom, in order to show you how deeply I care. Because when you see the depth of my concern, and how civil I am in going about this, you're bound to change your mind about me, to abandon your rigid, unjust position, and to let me help you see the truth of my cause.”

“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ' an unjust law is no law at all.”

“If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would ... [be] the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.”

“Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws.”

“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness.”

“In 1848, Thoreau went to jail for refusing, as a protest against the Mexican war, to pay his poll tax. When RW Emerson came to bail him out, Emerson said, 'Henry, what are you doing in there?' Thoreau quietly replied, 'Ralph, what are you doing out there?'”

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”

“Unless nonviolence of the strong is really developed among us, there should be no thought of civil disobedience for Swaraj, whether within the states or in British India.”

“Anyone in a free society where the laws are unjust has an obligation to break the law.”

“One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust ... is in reality expressing the highest respect for law ... We will not obey your evil laws.”

“It is my hope that as the Negro plunges deeper into the quest for freedom and justice he will plunge even deeper into the philosophy of non-violence. The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: "We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer".”

“Disobedience to be civil has to be open and nonviolent.”

“There is no "playing with truth" in the Charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth.”

“Satyagraha, of which civil resistance is but a part, is to me the universal law of life.”

“I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.”

“Before civil disobedience can be practised on a vast scale, people must learn the art of civil or voluntary obedience.”

“Mass civil disobedience was for the attainment of independence.”