Quotes By Author

Quotations By John Stuart Mill

Beliefs

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

Censorship

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

Conservative-Liberal

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

Epithets

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 being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.

Evil

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.

Existence

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.

Freedom

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.

Happiness

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

Individuality

There is one characteristic of the present direction of public opinion peculiarly calculated to make it intolerant of any marked demonstration of individuality. The general average of mankind are not only moderate in intellect, but also moderate in inclinations; they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and intemperate who they are accustomed to look down upon.

Individuality

A man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing 'what nobody does,' or of not doing 'what everybody does,' is...in peril of a commission de lunatico.