I do not recognize your law,
Jumbled together as it is by the
Nobodies of bygone centuries.²
It is not desirable to cultivate respect
For the law—so much as for the Right.³
I like what the law Forbiddeth—and never can
Bear to like what the law hath allowed.⁴
I break laws to suit
My Poetical Purpose!⁵
Our moral responsibility
Is to Disobey Unjust laws.⁶
Injustice makes the rules—
Courage breaks them.⁷
No one is a lawgiver—unless
They have Given Life, too, with the law.⁸
We abide by statutes utter and immutable:
Unwritten, original—God-given Laws.⁹
We will not be subject to laws:
The laws will be subject to us!¹⁰
¹ Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy
² Louis Lingg, Trial Speech
³ Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
⁴ Abu Nuwas tr. Reynold A. Nicholson, O Málik!
⁵ Peter Bondanella, Introduction to The Inferno
⁶ Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
⁷ Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea
⁸ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
⁹ Seamus Heaney, The Burial at Thebes
¹⁰ Fidel Castro tr. Tabío & Booth, History Will Absolve Me