Civil Disobedience — Outline
Thesis
“That government is best which governs not at all”
Development
- 1.
Opening: critique of government as expedient
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.”
- 2.
Conscience vs. law: the individual's primary obligation
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right.”
- 3.
Limits of voting and majority rule
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it.”
- 4.
Duty of withdrawal: action over opinion
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“Action from principle,—the perception and the performance of right,—changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was.”
- 5.
Prison as the just man's proper place
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
- 6.
Narrative: the night in jail
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was.”
- 7.
Critique of legislators and Webster
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“Still his quality is not wisdom, but prudence.”
- 8.
Vision of a higher State
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience“There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.”
Conclusion
“A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.”