John Stuart Mill quotes

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

— John Stuart Mill

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

— John Stuart Mill

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

— John Stuart Mill

“All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.”

— John Stuart Mill

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

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“A man 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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience.”

— John Stuart Mill

“Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character had abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and courage which it contained.”

— John Stuart Mill

“If all mankind minus one were of one 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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— 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

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

— John Stuart Mill

“A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.”

— John Stuart Mill

“In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.”

— John Stuart Mill

“The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.”

— John Stuart Mill

“That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.”

— 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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs.”

— John Stuart Mill

“Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.”

— John Stuart Mill

“I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.”

— John Stuart Mill

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

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— John Stuart Mill

“As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”

— John Stuart Mill

“Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.”

— John Stuart Mill

“The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.”

— John Stuart Mill

“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.”

— John Stuart Mill