the blood of patriots and tyrants

god forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. the people cannot be all, and always, well informed. the part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. if they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. and what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms. the remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. what signify a few lives lost in a century or two? the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. it is its natural manure.

thomas jefferson  November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith

let your life be a counter friction

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 Civil Disobedience