Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we
should be men first, and subjects afterward. 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 assume 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 corporation with a conscience. Law never made
men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect
for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the
agents of injustice.

          -- Henry David Thoreau
             "Civil Disobedience"