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James Mill Quotes

The government and the people are under a moral necessity of acting together; a free press compels them to bend to one another.

The government and the people are under a moral necessity of acting together; a free press compels them to bend to one another.

James Mill
Government, People, Acting
1811 In the Edinburgh Review, May- Aug.

Every man should be considered as having a right to the character which he deserves; that is, to be spoken of according to his actions.

James Mill
Character, Men, Action
James Mill (1829). “Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, and Law of Nations. Written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”

Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exists.

James Mill
Men, Hands, Community
James Mill (1821). “The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.8

It cannot be precisely known how any thing is good or bad, till it is precisely known what it is.

James Mill
Known
James Mill (1821). “The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.24

Of the laws of nature, on which the condition of man depends, that which is attended with the greatest number of consequences, is the necessity of labor for obtaining the means of subsistence, as well as the means of the greatest part of our pleasure.

James Mill
Mean, Men, Law
James Mill (1829). “Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, and Law of Nations. Written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.4

If nature had produced spontaneously all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury among men; nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring authority over another.

James Mill
Mean, Men, Desire
James Mill (1821). “The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.4

Exhortations to obstruct the operations of Government in detail, should; Exhortations to resist all.

James Mill
Government, Details, Should
James Mill (1829). “Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, and Law of Nations. Written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”

No good government can ever want more than two things for its support: 1st, Its own excellence; and, 2dly, a people sufficiently instructed, to be aware of that excellence. Every other pretended support, must ultimately tend to its subversion, by lessening its dependence upon these.

James Mill
Government, Two, People

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