Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience, Thoreau`s 1849 essay, justifies his decision to go to jail rather than pay a poll tax that supported the Mexican War. The opening lines are often quoted: I heartily accept the motto, `That government is best which governs least`; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--`That government is best which governs not at all`; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Thoreau`s ideas influenced both Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

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