Thoreau on the State vs the Individual

"There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power is derived, and treats him accordingly.. to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistant with its own repose, if a few were to live aloof from it. A state which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a more perfect and glorious state, which I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen."
-- Henry David Thoreau