Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Justice

We do not live by justice, but by grace.

We do not live by justice, but by grace.

Henry David Thoreau

Life, Justice, Grace

Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “A Yankee in Canada: With Anti-slavery and Reform Papers”, p.245

Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant.

Henry David Thoreau

Sweet, Justice, Musical

Henry David Thoreau (1992). “The Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.44, Rowman & Littlefield

The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable; of a bad one, to make it less valuable.

Henry David Thoreau

Government, Justice, Valuable

Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “A Yankee in Canada: With Anti-slavery and Reform Papers”, p.113

I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government

Henry David Thoreau

Freedom, Government, Justice

Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.2, Cambridge University Press

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Justice, May

Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.87, Penguin

If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, Justice, Drowning

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.288, Simon and Schuster

The lover wants no partiality. He says, Be so kind as to be just.

Henry David Thoreau

Justice, Want, Lovers

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1139, Delphi Classics

While the Governor, and the Mayor, and countless officers of the Commonwealth are at large, the champions of liberty are imprisoned.

Henry David Thoreau

Government, Justice, Champion

Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Civil Disobedience and Other Essays”, p.28, Courier Corporation

I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the leastact of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.

Henry David Thoreau

Government, Law, Justice

Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.127, Cambridge University Press

If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me.

Henry David Thoreau

Justice, Would Be, Spiders

Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.276, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.

Henry David Thoreau

Philosophy, Philosophical, Justice

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.113, Delphi Classics

If private men are obliged to perform the offices of government, to protect the weak and dispense justice, then the government becomes only a hired man, or clerk, to perform menial or indifferent services.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, Office, Justice

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.249, Graphic Arts Books