"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."
— Henry David Thoreau 1849