Quote#War
The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by…
Quote byHenry David Thoreau · 1817–1862
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Civil Disobedience (1849).
English (original)
The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment.
— Henry David Thoreau
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I am a parcel of vain strivings tied By a chance bond together, Dangling this way and that, their links Were made so loose and wide, Methinks, For milder weather.
Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth.
But now I see I was not plucked for naught, And after in life's vase Of glass set while I might survive, But by a kind hand brought Alive To a strange place.
My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read, 'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large Down in the meadow, where is richer feed, And will not mind to hit their proper targe.