[W]e should always make a distinction that right and wrong is a very different standard than legal and illegal. The law is no substitute for morality.
Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.
An unjust law is no law at all
[A]n individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
If the Government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver