Considering the fact that, he viewed the government as very bad people who basically did bad and bad things to people. (For example, American slavery and the Mexican-American War.) And overall, they didn't need a government like that. Because they took things they shouldn't as if they didn't already have too much power. He said he would only respect the laws he had made for himself and not those of the government. He felt like they were more harmful to others than helpful than other people's views of them. While Socrates saw government as good people, he felt it improved people's lives rather than having no government at all like Thoreau.