break the law, let your
life be a counter friction
to stop the machine
what I have to do
is not lend myself to the
wrong which I condemn
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the machine will wear out.
If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil;
but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Let your life be a counter‑friction to stop the machine.
What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
From Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854).
Or, as it he said, Ralph, what are you doing … out there.
No Haiku For You 