“I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterwards. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assure is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a cooperation with a conscience.” Henry David Thoreau stated this in one of his essays called Civil Disobedience. People should do what they think is right, even if it means going against the law. One man should not be able to limit what you believe to be the right thing. I also believe that everyone is after the pursuit of happiness. In order to achieve this, you will have to do what you think is right. Society can get in the way of thinking for yourself.

People should think for themselves, not be the followers of others. That means doing what they think is right. Everyone should also have the freedom to be their own person. If you can’t be your own person, you won’t be able to think for yourself. When I say do what you think is right, this doesn’t mean violence is always the answer. Thoreau sat in jai a couple of nights for refusing to pay a poll tax because it went against his conscience. Thoreau never did anything violent to show his opinion. He always followed his conscious in a non-aggressive way that still proved a point. Taking away someone’s life is not a successful way to dealing with your problems. If you want to be successful with proving a point, you must follow in the footsteps of the greats like Thoreau.

Everyone is after the pursuit of happiness. If you’re stuck in a dark place, the hope of reaching happiness is what keeps you going. I always try to be happy. I haven’t really been depressed before and I’m grateful for that but I know a lot of people deal with it every day. You always hear of those inspiring stories of how people were dealing with depression but got out of it and became happy once again. You also hear the stories about people who don’t make it through. Striving for happiness can be much harder for some people over others but I believe that it is possible for anyone. The ultimate goal in life is to be happy.

Society can get in the way of thinking for yourself. Society can confuse people because of the many ideas it puts into their heads. In our society, the law is everything. This makes it hard for people to do what they think is right when it goes against it. We citizens can be manipulated by the society because we pretty much do whatever it wants. This is what society wants because they can control us. The only way that we could stop society from doing this is by getting a group of people who all do what they think is right. If one person does it, nothing will happen except that person will be thrown in jail. If a group of people all do it, then our society will have to change because there’s nothing else they can do.

Thinking for yourself is like being your own boss in a business. Reaching your goal of happiness is like finally acquiring the pot of gold under the rainbow. Society is like a corrupt business leader just trying to make himself money. Once you go with your gut and what you think is right, nothing will be able to stand in your way.