- Change theme
Quotes by John Stuart Mill
- The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.
- The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
- 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 it but to amend it.
- The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.
- The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
- The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.
- 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 only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
- The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses.
- 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. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.
- 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.
- There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
1