John Stuart Mill

The true virtue of human beings is fitness to live together as equals; claiming nothing for themselves but what they as freely…

— John Stuart Mill

In early times, the great majority of the male sex were slaves, as well as the whole of the female. And many…

— John Stuart Mill

Co-operation, like other difficult things, can be learned only by practice: and to be capable of it in great things, a people…

— John Stuart Mill

It often happens that the universal belief of one age of mankind — a belief from which no one was, nor without…

— John Stuart Mill

“It is true that a great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere…

— John Stuart Mill

“And one of the commonest forms of fallacious reasoning arising from ambiguity, is that of arguing from a metaphorical expression as if…

— John Stuart Mill

Human beings are no longer born to their place in life...but are free to employ their faculties and such favorable chances as…

— John Stuart Mill

The reasons for legal intervention in favour of children apply not less strongly to the case of those unfortunate slaves and victims…

— John Stuart Mill

“Person of genus are, ex vi termini, more individual than any other people - less capable, consequently, of fitting themselves, without harmful…

— John Stuart Mill

A state of things in which a large portion of the most active and inquiring intellects find it advisable to keep the…

— John Stuart Mill

“On the average, a person who cares for other people, for his country, or for mankind, is a happier man than one…

— John Stuart Mill

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of…

— John Stuart Mill

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one…

— John Stuart Mill

the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing…

— John Stuart Mill

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of…

— John Stuart Mill

“The form of association, however, which if mankind continue to improve, must be expected in the end to predominate, is not that…

— John Stuart Mill

“Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it,…

— John Stuart Mill

Hardly any original thoughts on mental or social subjects ever make their way among mankind or assume their proper importance in the…

— John Stuart Mill

If opponents of all important truths do not exist, it is indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest arguments…

— John Stuart Mill

Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion, necessary to the working of…

— John Stuart Mill

There are no means of finding what either one person or many can do, but by trying - and no means by…

— John Stuart Mill

There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence: and to find that limit, and maintain it…

— John Stuart Mill

“The second general division of names is into concrete and abstract. A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing;…

— John Stuart Mill

The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or…

— John Stuart Mill

The cause, then, philosophically speaking, is the sum total of the conditions, positive and negative, taken together; the whole of the contingencies…

— John Stuart Mill

“What the State can usefully do is to make itself a central depository, and active circulator and diffuser, of the experience resulting…

— John Stuart Mill

If I have accomplished anything, I owe it, among other fortunate circumstances, to the fact that through the early training bestowed on…

— John Stuart Mill

“Where there is a tacit convention that principles are not to be disputed; where the discussion of the greatest questions which can…

— John Stuart Mill

Solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur is the cradle of thought and aspirations which are not only good for…

— John Stuart Mill

But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature is not the excess, but…

— John Stuart Mill

I have a hundred times heard him say, that all ages and nations have represented their gods as wicked, in a constantly…

— John Stuart Mill

The United States is no more a Christian nation because most of its citizens are Christians than it is a 'white' nation…

— John Stuart Mill

My father never permitted anything which I learnt to degenerate into a mere exercise of memory. He strove to make the understanding…

— John Stuart Mill

It appears, then, to be a condition of a genuinely scientific hypothesis, that it be not destined always to remain an hypothesis,…

— John Stuart Mill

“Even despotism does not produce its worst effects, so long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by…

— John Stuart Mill

The idea that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods, which most experience refutes. History is teeming with…

— John Stuart Mill

A person whose desires and impulses are his own—are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified…

— John Stuart Mill

There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true…

— John Stuart Mill

Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and…

— John Stuart Mill

The maxim is, that whatever can be affirmed (or denied) of a class, may be affirmed (or denied) of everything included in…

— John Stuart Mill