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It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
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“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”

Henry David Thoreau

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Source
Civil Disobedience
Date
1849
Meaning

Meaning of “It is not desirable to cultivate a respect…”

Thoreau distinguishes legality from moral rightness, warning that habitual reverence for law can become dangerous when law and conscience point in opposing directions.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Civil Disobedience, first printed in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”; represented Wikisource text. The surrounding paragraph asks whether citizens should resign conscience to legislators.

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FreedomHonestyIndependenceIntegritySelf-Respect Quotes About Dignity & BoundariesShortCharacterConscienceDemocracyJusticePoliticsRespect
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The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.
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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 · Civil Disobedience · 1849
Meaning & context

Thoreau places personal moral judgment ahead of automatic obedience, arguing that conscience creates an individual responsibility to decide whether one’s own action is right.

Source details

Civil Disobedience, first published in 1849 as 'Resistance to Civil Government'; reviewed in the public-domain Miscellanies transcription. The obligation-to-do-right sentence occurs early in Thoreau's argument contrasting conscience with automatic deference to majority rule and law. It remains historical political philosophy rather than current legal advice or a blanket instruction to violate law.

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One principal of action is sufficient—Respect thyself.
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“One principal of action is sufficient—Respect thyself.”

Mary Wollstonecraft · An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution · 1794
Meaning & context

Wollstonecraft makes self-respect a moral standard rather than self-flattery: conduct should remain compatible with one’s own sense of truth and justice instead of being reorganized around gaining a respectable social position.

Source details

An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, Project Gutenberg #68724. Wollstonecraft connects “Respect thyself” with religion, justice and self-love while criticizing social arrangements that encourage people to sacrifice truthful character for status.

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Let us have faith that right makes might.
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“Let us have faith that right makes might.”

Abraham Lincoln · Cooper Union Address · 1860
Meaning & context

Lincoln reverses the idea that power establishes right, arguing that moral judgment should guide sustained political action rather than treating strength or intimidation as proof of justice.

Source details

Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860, closing passage. Lincoln is defending Republican opposition to the extension of slavery into federal territories; the line retains that antislavery political context.

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I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.
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“I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.”

Mary Wollstonecraft · A Vindication of the Rights of Men · 1790
Meaning & context

The line joins political rights with intellectual liberty: the argument is not merely for a different ruler but for people’s capacity to reason without inherited deference.

Source details

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.

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