On the Duty of Civil Disobedience is Henry David Thoreau's declaration of the power of nonviolent resistance
American writer's 1849 essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience paved the way for the 20th century movements led by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
As pro-democracy protesters continue to peacefully fill Hong Kong's streets, despite tear gas and paid thugs, we're reminded of past successes.
Of Mahatma Gandhi's fight for Indian independence, of Martin Luther King's American civil rights movement - and of the man who inspired both, by being the first to define nonviolent resistance: author, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, in his essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" (first printed in Aesthetic Papers by G.P. Putnam in 1849).
An abolitionist, Thoreau had returned from two years' isolation at Walden Pond inflamed by America's slavery crisis and its war with Mexico during the mid-1800s. It was soon after that he delivered the speech that became "Civil Disobedience".
"That government is best which governs the least," Thoreau begins. And for the next few thousand words, he lucidly, philosophically and passionately argues his discontent with taxes that would prolong slavery and encourage expansionist warfare.
His arguments are largely based on respect for the individual, rather than the collective mass, and Thoreau spends much of the essay questioning one's relation to the state and the possibilities of true independence.