What we want is not mainly to ...

What we want is not mainly to colonize Nebraska with free men, but to colonize Massachusetts with free men-to be free ourselves. As the enterprise of a few individuals, that is brave and practical; but as the enterprise of the State, it is cowardice and imbecility. What odds where we squat, or bow much ground we cover? It is not the soil that we would make free, but men.
What we want is not mainly to colonize Nebraska with free men, but to colonize Massachusetts with free men-to be free ourselves. As the enterprise of a few individuals, that is brave and practical; but as the enterprise of the State, it is cowardice and imbecility. What odds where we squat, or bow much ground we cover? It is not the soil that we would make free, but men.
 Henry David Thoreau

Quotes from the same author

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
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 Henry David Thoreau
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dream, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagines, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
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 Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.
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 Henry David Thoreau
The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
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 Henry David Thoreau
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
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 Henry David Thoreau