I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.
 Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849). copy citation

Context


Thus the state never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live?” source

Meaning and analysis

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