Whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent

You can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.

Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.

We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.

Whatever effects one directly, effects all indirectly.

I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed, without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.

I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest.