Civil Disobedience

"A very few, as...martyrs,...serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," (from Shakespeare's Hamlet (act 5, scene 1) but leave that office to his dust at least:-

"I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world." (from Shakespeare's King John (act 5, scene 2)

"Civil Disobedience" Henry David Thoreau