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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker values being a good neighbor as much as they dislike being a subservient subject.
In plain terms
Being a good neighbor is as important as rejecting subservience.
What can you take from it?
Prioritize community over blind obedience.

Where it applies

  • local politics
  • civic engagement

Putting it to work

  • build strong community ties
  • question authority

Questions to consider

  • How does neighborliness conflict with obedience?
  • What defines a ‘bad subject’?

Another view

Balancing neighborly duties with broader civic responsibilities can be complex.

More from Henry David Thoreau

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  2. They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at i…

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  3. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison... the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abid…

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