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View Full Version : Henry Thoreau: American libertarian. Anti-Slavery, Anti-War, Anti-Tax.




98Tokay
11-17-2010, 01:59 PM
It looks like SFL is continuing their new series of articles, and I really dig the new one about Thoreau.

http://studentsforliberty.org/littleguides/the-little-guide-to-henry-david-thoreau/

I hadn't read "Civil Disobedience" before, but it blew me away.

“Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents on injustice.” - Henry David Thoreau

The dude was a BAMF.

BuddyRey
11-17-2010, 09:49 PM
The dude was a BAMF.

Word! Civil Disobedience is a must-read!

98Tokay
11-17-2010, 11:04 PM
bump! :D

WorldonaString
11-18-2010, 03:16 AM
Thoreau deserves another bump

98Tokay
11-18-2010, 04:03 PM
bump :D

zade
11-18-2010, 04:27 PM
Love Thoreau, sort of anti-commercialist though, isn't that a bit much for you guys?

98Tokay
11-18-2010, 04:29 PM
Love Thoreau, sort of anti-commercialist though, isn't that a bit much for you guys?

Yeah, Thoreau was pretty anti-commercialism, but that shouldn't be confused with anti-commerce. He recognized throughout his writings that commerce was a tremendous source of wealth and progress; he just thought that people spent too much time worrying about it at the expense of paying attention to the world around them.

He wanted people to stop and smell the roses.

98Tokay
11-18-2010, 05:20 PM
Love Thoreau, sort of anti-commercialist though, isn't that a bit much for you guys?

Wrote Thoreau:

"Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads."