John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Millwas an English philosopher, political economist, feminist, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century." Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth20 May 1806
practice atheism needs
There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct, and better taste and sense in human life.
freedom mind sovereign
Over one's mind and over one's body the individual is sovereign.
success time work
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
pain pleasure ends
Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.
life success nature
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.
fighting justice long
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.
mean men earning
Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.
advancement standing-alone despotism
The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.
thinking errors individuality
The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.
pain mean prevention
All desirable things... are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as a means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain.
character color sake
All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient.
power names government
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.
exercise individuality way
We have a right, also, in various ways, to act upon our unfavorable opinion of anyone, not to the oppression of his individuality, but in the exercise of ours.
pain action absence
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.