“Diction” refers to the author’s choice of words and manner of speaking. Remember too, that Thoreau first delivered an early version of what we now call “Civil Disobedience” as a public lecture to his townspeople in Concord. Here he uses several techniques to create an attitude of urgency. He makes bold, brash statements, beginning with “That government is best which governs not at all,” and including the point, “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.” His passion and candor force his readers/listeners to pay close attention, and perhaps to even wonder at the subject of his next audacious comment.

Thoreau asks a number of rhetorical questions here, too. Sometimes he answers them himself. Sometimes he allows the questions to hang in the air, to let the readers/listeners think about how they should react to them. For example, in his concluding paragraph, he asks: “Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man?” These are fresh ideas that require further thought on both the part of the speaker and the listener. Now is the time to “fix” our broken democracy, he says.