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 on courage
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 on courage
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home. John Stuart Mill on experience
Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience. John Stuart Mill on experience
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. John Stuart Mill on experience
Of two pleasures, if there be one which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure. John Stuart Mill on experience
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 on freedom
Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends. John Stuart Mill on freedom
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 on god
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 on good
The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power. John Stuart Mill on government
Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. John Stuart Mill on happiness
I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them. John Stuart Mill on happiness
Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain. John Stuart Mill on happiness
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home. John Stuart Mill on home
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 on men
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 on men
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. John Stuart Mill on nature
Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives. John Stuart Mill on politics
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 on politics