The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.
 Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849). copy citation

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Author Henry David Thoreau
Source Civil Disobedience
Topic good duty right obligation
Date 1849
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/71/71-h/71-h.htm

Context

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. 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 of injustice.” source

Meaning and analysis

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