Having finished reading the "Civil disobedience by Henry Thoreau, I find it difficult to understand what he actually meant whether as an individual we do disobey the the law or as collectively as most laws are enacted with the mindset of what to gain from it and not how it is going to benefit the nation as a whole.
 One quote that catch my attention was " If I devote myself to other pursuits and comtemplations,I must first see,at least , that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders.  Basically I think this means that whaterver you are doing , make sure it is not going to infringe on the rights of another.
And also bare him from doing what is beneficial to him.I think he also liken our country as a people who only talks about injustice but does nothing to correct it.  There is a lot of unjust acts being done in the name of order and civil obedience to the government. Lastly lawmakers by being bais and selfish have set a lot of laws which leads to civil disobedience.