I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Perhaps not sugar, Ray, but I would certainly like to sit on a barstool by his liquor cabinet
and share drinks and stories with him. ..

[image not available]

I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.

Well, judging by the photograph he's achieved the latter

What matters is to dissimulate, while you´re awaiting for your moment. :}

Here now put in context for better understanding...

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On The Duty of Civil Disobedience

I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow-countrymen now. It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with — the dollar is innocent — but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.

http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil.html
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I think the key here is the latter part:

I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with — the dollar is innocent — but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.

Thoreau believed that by -supporting schools- and -educating the fellow countrymen- he was being as good as being good through opposition to a government that would use his money to fight for causes he deemed wrong.

Let's not forget that by supporting the war, people were actually thought of as good subjects. However, supporting slavery and the Mexican-American War is something that a good person does not support. Therefore, he called himself "desirous of being a bad subject".

What is important here is: a good subject follows the state blindly, but a good person has ideas of his or her own and when this person judges the actions of the state as wrong, his duty is to oppose the state.

Good examples will do good fame.

When Thoreau was taking his daily walk in the woods he would wend his way past his aunt's home where he would indulge in homemakde cookies. When he was caculating his expense account he failed to include the cost of the cookies. We all need each other, even such a solitary individual like Thoreau had a need for cookies. No doubt his aunt's musing were exasperating to him but I could be wrong. As for government, it should serve more than the pressing needs of the rich.

true

He sounds like an interesting soul. Not sure i want him living next to me.... Can't we all just get along.

Taken even in the context which has already been provided by Christine and capitan, this quotation does represent
the radical view, the rebellious in Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. But he was not an anarchist.

He was not a rabble rouser either, nor suspicious of government, anymore than most every luminary of post-independence days, or of mid 19th century America.

Thoreau also wrote this excerpt further to the quoted passage, which may help to understand his single minded determination to oppose his tax
dollars being spent on that war with Mexico and supporting the continuation of slavery by the state of Massachusetts:

"" I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.""

Sadly, he never did discover the pretext for conformity. Nor has one been discovered since, although most Americans will conform, and look what "fine" results the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought to America.
Thoreau in fact was not against government; he only wanted one such as this:
""[19] The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to — for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well — is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.""

@Absurdicuss: You are always welcome, and you always understand how to connect various parts of an excerpt. Yes, Thoreau did not think there was anything wrong with being "a bad subject",
because he thought of himself as "governed", not "under the rule", not "ruled", let alone by force. So your quip "a man after my own heart" was on the money.

According to TFD: Subject: n.
1. One who is under the rule of another or others, especially one who owes allegiance to a government or ruler.

And how is Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, these days?

@verbatim Ushuaia? The Kalma Resto is absurdly delicious and the views are the end of the world.

That is, when viewed through my desktop monitor located in rural South Carolina.


Triv kicks it up a notch with some sobering realist sarcasm.....swish