Henry David Thoreau on do-gooders

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Les Jones

“If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.”
– Henry David Thoreau

Hat tip to Roberta X.

Other quotes of a piece with this one…

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
- C.S. Lewis

“In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.”
– H.L. Mencken

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”
- H.L. Mencken

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3 Responses to Henry David Thoreau on do-gooders

  1. Linoge says:
    July 15, 2009 at 8:45 pm

    I cannot seem to find the actual quote in my copy, but Robert A. Heinlein had this to say in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”:

    Thing that got me was not her list of things she hated, since she was obviously crazy as a Cyborg, but fact that always somebody agreed with her prohibitions. Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws— always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: “Please pass this so that I won’t be able to do something I know I should stop.” Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them “for their own good”—not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.

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  2. Baltimore Jack says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    In re: Thoreau quote.
    You’ve obviously never hiked the Appalachian Trail and experienced the unasked-for kindness of strangers.

  3. Les Jones says:
    July 16, 2009 at 11:56 pm

    In fact I have.

    There’s a certain kind of do-gooder who doesn’t understand the difference between helping someone and telling them what to do, or who doesn’t understand the difference between helping someone with their own hands and using government coercion to “help” people. Those are the people I worry about.
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