None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Laws do not inherently create justice, and even good people can contribute to injustice through their adherence to laws.
This quote by Henry David Thoreau emphasizes the idea that laws alone do not ensure fairness or morality in society. It highlights the potential for individuals, even those with good intentions, to perpetuate injustice simply by following rules without questioning their moral implications. Thoreau encourages a deeper reflection on the relationship between law and justice, suggesting that true justice arises from individual conscience rather than blind compliance with societal rules.
Themes
JusticeLawInjusticeMoralitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on civil disobedience during a philosophy class.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes βThrough want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead
Similar quotes
The man who has known pure joy, if only for a moment ... is the only man for whom affliction is something devastating. At the same time he is the only man who has not deserved the punishment. But, after all, for him it is no punishment; it is God holding his hand and pressing rather hard. For, if he remains constant, what he will discover buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God.
Simone WeilRead
I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them.
George WashingtonRead
This is what I mean by becoming religious: no guilt, no ego, no trip of any kind...just being herenow...being with the trees and the birds and the rivers and the mountains and the stars.
RajneeshRead
I am better than my reputation
Friedrich SchillerRead
Time moves only forward, never back. We look forward to a moment and then it arrives and an instant later it is gone. Like something on the surface of a river that we reached for but did not touch in time and it carried on, away. You cannot be a prisoner of your past against your will. Because you can only live in the past inside your mind.
Augusten BurroughsRead
I don't think that anybody in any war thinks of themselves as a hero. The minute anybody presumes that they are heroes, they get their boots taken away from them and buried in the sand.
Steven SpielbergRead