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The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.
Henry David Thoreau
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of personal integrity and moral conviction in one's actions.

Henry David Thoreau's quote speaks to the idea that each individual has the right and obligation to act according to their own sense of what is right, suggesting that one should prioritize personal conscience over societal expectations or pressures. It highlights the value of self-governance and the moral responsibility one holds to act authentically, aligning one's actions with personal beliefs rather than conformity.

Themes

ObligationIntegrityMoralRightPersonalAction

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about personal values, this quote can be used to encourage individuals to follow their conscience.

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Quote by Henry David Thoreau | QuoteProject