John Stuart Mill Quotes

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case, he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it.

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.

The individual is not accountable to society for his actions insofar as these concern the interests of no person but himself.

The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes—the legal subordination of one sex to the other—is wrong in itself.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power.

John Stuart Mill Quotes part 2

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow but to perfect and fulfil.

The individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.

It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in themselves, but by cultivating it and calling it forth, within the limits imposed by the rights and interests of others, that human beings become a noble and beautiful object of contemplation.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than attempting to satisfy them.

All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and colour from the end to which they are subservient.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of individuals.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, chose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation.

Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.

The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die of is routine.

To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors.

The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion.

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.

I apprehend nonsense, therefore I am.

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.

To ask protection to the arts, is like asking protection for religion.

As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another.

The student of human nature owes it to himself never to speculate on its future destiny.

A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands — even for beneficial purposes — will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

In the case of any person whose judgment is really deserving of confidence, how has it become so? Because he has kept his mind open to criticism of his opinions and conduct.

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests.

The backward state of the moral sciences in this country is one of the most discouraging circumstances connected with the present state of society.

It is in general a necessary condition of free institutions that the boundaries of governmental interference should be strictly conformed to.

I would rather be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.

If society lets a considerable number of its members grow up mere children, incapable of being acted on by rational consideration of distant motives, society has itself to blame for the consequences.

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.