That's easy for Thoreau to say when he lives alone in the woods. And that peaceful place in the woods was only his to live in because earlier English-speaking settlers in North America had gained that land from the aboriginal inhabitants.

Thoreau spent a year in the woods, but he was not an anchorite by any stretch of the imagination. Besides being a civil libertarian he was also an accomplished engineer who developed pencil making machinery and built milling equipment.

And, as I have said here elsewhere, the disobedient must be willing to face the consequences of their disobedience else it means nothing. I have little respect for the draft dodgers of my youth, particularly those who now expect all will be forgotten when they return from Canada to visit their aging relatives, but for Mohammed Ali and others who subjected themselves to imprisonment, I have a great deal of respect.