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When the people are too much attached to savage independence, to be tolerant of the amount of power to which it is for their good that they should be subject, the state of society is not yet ripe for representative government.
-John Stuart Mill
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Thus, a people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by momentary discouragement, or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet even of a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty: and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it.
-John Stuart Mill
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There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence: and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs, as protection against political despotism.
-John Stuart Mill
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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
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The maxims are, first, that the individual is not accountable to society for his actions, in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself. Advice, instruction, persuasion, and avoidance by other people if thought necessary by them for their own good, are the only measures by which society can justifiably express its dislike or disapprobation of his conduct. Secondly, that for such actions as are prejudicial to the interests of others, the individual is accountable, and may be subjected either to social or to legal punishment, if society is of opinion that the one or the other is requisite for its protection.
-John Stuart Mill
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A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.
-John Stuart Mill
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The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it; and a State which postpones the interests of their mental expansion and elevation, to a little more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it which practice gives, in the details of business; a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposeswill find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of the vital power which, in order that the machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.
-John Stuart Mill
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On completely popular government: Its superiority in reference to present well-being rests upon two principles, of as universal truth and applicability as any general propositions which can be laid down respecting human affairs. The first is, that the rights and interests of every or any person are only secure from being disregarded, when the person interested is himself able, and habitually disposed, to stand up for them. The second is, that the general prosperity attains a greater height, and is more widely diffused, in proportion to the amount and variety of the personal energies enlisted in promoting it.
-John Stuart Mill
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Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians.
-John Stuart Mill
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The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England.
-John Stuart Mill
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If it were felt that the free development of individuality is one of the leading essentials of well-being; that it is not only a coordinate element with all that is designated by the terms civilisation, instruction, education, culture, but is itself a necessary part and condition of all those things; there would be no danger that liberty should be undervalued.
-John Stuart Mill
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Belief
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One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests.
-John Stuart Mill
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Bravery
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Though the practice of chivalry fell even more sadly short of its theoretic standard than practice generally falls below theory, it remains one of the most precious monuments of the moral history of our race, as a remarkable instance of a concerted and organized attempt by a most disorganized and distracted society, to raise up and carry into practice a moral ideal greatly in advance of its social condition and institutions; so much so as to have been completely frustrated in the main object, yet never entirely inefficacious, and which has left a most sensible, and for the most part a highly valuable impress on the ideas and feelings of all subsequent times.
-John Stuart Mill
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Bureaucracy
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The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.
-John Stuart Mill
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Charity
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As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another.
-John Stuart Mill
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Conservatism
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Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
-John Stuart Mill
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Consumerism
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What a country wants to make it richer is never consumption, but production. Where there is the latter, we may be sure that there is no want of the former. To produce, implies that the producer de_sires to consume; why else should he give himself useless labor? He may not wish to consume what he himself produces, but his motive for producing and selling is the desire to buy. Therefore, if the producers generally produce and sell more and more, they certainly also buy more and more.
-John Stuart Mill, essay, The Consumer Theory of Prosperity
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Customs
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The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.
-John Stuart Mill
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Democracy
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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
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Eccentric, Eccentricity
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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
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Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained.
-John Stuart Mill
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Excellence
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There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.
-John Stuart Mill
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Experience
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There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
-John Stuart Mill
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Freedom
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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
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Happiness
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I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
-John Stuart Mill
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Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.
-John Stuart Mill
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Individuality
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But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal Impulses and preferences.
-John Stuart Mill
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That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
-John Stuart Mill
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What ever crushes individuality is despotism, no matter what name it is called.
-John Stuart Mill
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Industry
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The opening of a foreign trade, by making them acquainted with new objects, or tempting them by the easier acquisition of things which they had not previously thought attainable, sometimes works a sort of industrial revolution in a country whose resources were previously undeveloped for want of energy and ambition in the people: inducing those who were satisfied with scanty comforts and little work, to work harder for the gratification of their new tastes, and even to save, and accumulate capital, for the still more complete satisfaction of those tastes at a future time.
-John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (Book 3, Chapter 17)
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Innovation
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All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
-John Stuart Mill
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Originality is the one thing unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.
-John Stuart Mill
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Justice
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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
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Knowledge
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He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
-John Stuart Mill
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Law
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All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.
-John Stuart Mill
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Masses
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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
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Mediocrity
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The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.
-John Stuart Mill
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Politics
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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
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Power
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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 a sufficient warrant.
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
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Prejudice
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We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
-John Stuart Mill
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Security
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A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the existing of better men than himself.
-John Stuart Mill
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Self Respect
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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
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State
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The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it -- a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes -- will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.
-John Stuart Mill
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Thought
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No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead.
-John Stuart Mill
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Truth
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The idea that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods, which most experience refutes. History is teeming with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not put down forever, it may be set back for centuries.
-John Stuart Mill
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But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapter 2: Of the liberty of thought and discussion, 1859
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Understanding
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To understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.
-John Stuart Mill
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War
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War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice,
-John Stuart Mill, "First published in Fraser"
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Wisdom
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That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.
-John Stuart Mill
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Women
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The most important thing women have to do is to stir up the zeal of women themselves.
-John Stuart Mill
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Books by and about John Stuart Mill
