title: Resistance to Civil Government, and Other Stories
author: Henry David Thoreau
description: Watered silk endpapers. Gilt decoration to covers, gilt edges. Black Leather boasrds. 367 pp.
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  Cover illustration: Henry David Thoreau, c. 1879.
  
  
  CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  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. Government is at best but an
  expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are
  sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a
  standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also
  at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an
  arm of the stand