Be good Quote by John Stuart Mill
“I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go .”
About This Quote
Source Essay: On Liberty, John Stuart Mill, 1859
Moral judgments should match the true nature of the subject, not just labels.
In simple terms: Judge by true nature, not names.
Key Takeaway
Align language with reality.
Themes
ethics
language
justice
Mood
critical
thoughtful
Type
philosophical
analytical
When to use this quote
- legal rulings
- social policy
- personal interactions
Key Concepts
philosophy
semantic truth
Questions to Reflect On
- What does “good” truly mean?
- How can we ensure labels reflect reality?
A Different Perspective
Changing language alone may not change behavior.
![“Why did people call it Hell?" I wondered. [...] No place was Hell, no place could be Hell. It's the people calling it Hell, that's the only thing that made it so. People just sticking names on places, so that no one could see those places properly anymore. [...] No, Hell wasn't anything to do with…” quote by John Marsden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2e4/john-marsden-3782_quote_why-did-people-call-it-hell-i-wondered-n_786530.jpg)
![“For other great mathematicians or philosophers, he [Gauss] used the epithets magnus, or clarus, or clarissimus; for Newton alone he kept the prefix summus.” quote by Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e97/anonymous-1_epithet_for-other-great-mathematicians-or-philos_222162.jpg)
![“[For people] to refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.” quote by John Stuart Mill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c53/john-stuart-mill-477_doubt_for-people-to-refuse-a-hearing-to-an-opi_63929.jpg)
