Rather than writing in a lofty and abstract philosophical manner, Thoreau adopts a tone that is both practical and active in Civil Disobedience. He hopes to spread his message to a wide audience, and his goal is not just to persuade the reader to agree with him, but also to act upon his argument for peaceful disobedience to a government which he regards as unjust. This tone is evident in a section of the essay in which Thoreau sharply criticizes those whose beliefs and actions are not aligned:
How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle,—the perception and the performance of right,—changes things and relations.
Thoreau questions how a man might be “satisfied” to simply “entertain” an opinion but not to act upon it. Rather than turning to ancient history for a story to support his argument, he presents an everyday, realistic scenario. If an individual knows that their neighbor has “cheated” them of “a single dollar,” they are not content to simply know that they have been treated unfairly, but rather, they will take “effectual steps at once” to recover what is owed to them, and to ensure that they are “never cheated again.” Exemplifying the active and practical tone of the essay in general, Thoreau asks the reader why they continue to obey a government that they resent.
