Truth Quotes by John Stuart Mill

Truth emerges from the clash of adverse ideas.

— John Stuart Mill

The test of real and vigorous thinking, the thinking which ascertains truths instead of dreaming dreams, is successful application to practice.

— John Stuart Mill

“define logic as the science which treats of the operations of the human understanding in the pursuit of truth.”

— John Stuart Mill

It is given to no human being to stereotype a set of truths, and walk safely by their guidance with his mind's…

— John Stuart Mill

... the besetting danger is not so much of embracing falsehood for truth, as of mistaking a part of the truth for…

— John Stuart Mill

Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of…

— John Stuart Mill

The peculiarity of the evidence of mathematical truths is that all the argument is on one side.

— John Stuart Mill

There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.

— John Stuart Mill

Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.

— John Stuart Mill

Every opinion which embodies somewhat of the portion of truth which the common opinion omits, ought to be considered precious, with whatever…

— John Stuart Mill

The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary…

— John Stuart Mill

“the general or prevailing opinion in any subject is rarely or never the whole truth; it is only by the collision of…

— John Stuart Mill

“Examples of truths known to us by immediate consciousness, are our own bodily sensations and mental feelings. I know directly, and of…

— John Stuart Mill

Even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is,…

— John Stuart Mill

However unwillingly a person who has a strong opinion may admit the possibility that his opinion may be false, he ought to…

— John Stuart Mill

“Truth, in the great practical concerns of life, is so much a question of the reconciling and combining of opposites, that very…

— John Stuart Mill

Political Economy, in truth, has never pretended to give advice to mankind with no lights but its own; though people who knew…

— 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

“Although, however, Hobbes's theory of Predication, according to the well-known remark of Leibnitz, and the avowal of Hobbes himself, 32 renders truth…

— John Stuart Mill

“First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this…

— John Stuart Mill

He must be able to hear them [the counter arguments] from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and…

— John Stuart Mill

“Such is the facility with which mankind believe at one and the same time things inconsistent with one another, and so few…

— John Stuart Mill

The beliefs which we have most warrant for have no safeguard to rest on but a standing invitation to the whole world…

— John Stuart Mill

Whether moral and social phenomena are really exceptions to the general certainty and uniformity of the course of nature; and how far…

— John Stuart Mill

“There is the greatest difference between assuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not…

— John Stuart Mill

“The peculiarity of the evidence of mathematical truths is, that all the argument is on one side. There are no objections, and…

— John Stuart Mill

“In the case of any person whose judgment is really deserving of confidence, how has it become so? Because he has kept…

— John Stuart Mill

Not the violent conflict between parts of the truth, but the quiet suppression of half of it, is the formidable evil; there…

— 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

In the human mind, one-sidedness has always been the rule, and many-sidedness the exception. Hence, even in revolutions of opinion, one part…

— 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

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

— John Stuart Mill

“There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not…

— John Stuart Mill

“No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize, that as a thinker his first duty is to follow his…

— John Stuart Mill

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true…

— John Stuart Mill

Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision…

— John Stuart Mill

Truths are known to us in two ways: some are known directly, and of themselves; some through the medium of other truths.…

— John Stuart Mill

“Truths are known to us in two ways: some are known directly, and of themselves; some through the medium of other truths.…

— John Stuart Mill

... All ideas need to be heard, because each idea contains one aspect of the truth. By examining that aspect, we add…

— John Stuart Mill