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John Stuart Mill Quotes - Page 13

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The sole evidence it is possible to produce that anything is desirable, is that people do actually desire it.

The sole evidence it is possible to produce that anything is desirable, is that people do actually desire it.

John Stuart Mill
People, Desire, Produce
1863 Utilitarianism, ch.4.

The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly understood by proof.

John Stuart Mill
Art, Mean, Giving
John Stuart Mill (2016). “Utilitarianism: Mill's Works”, p.3, VM eBooks

The most important thing women have to do is to stir up the zeal of women themselves.

John Stuart Mill
Feminism, Important, Zeal
Letter to Alexander Bain, 14 July 1869, in Hugh S. R. Elliot (ed.) 'Letters of John Stuart Mill' vol. 2 (1910)

Such are the differences among human beings in their sources of pleasure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the operation on them of different physical and moral agencies, that unless there is a corresponding diversity in their modes of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of which their nature is capable.

John Stuart Mill
Growing Up, Pain, Differences
John Stuart Mill (2017). “The Greatest Happiness Principle - Utilitarianism, On Liberty & The Subjection of Women: The Principle of the Greatest-Happiness: What Is Utilitarianism (Proofs & Principles), Civil & Social Liberty, Liberty of Thought, Individuality & Individual Freedom, Utilitarian Feminism”, p.148, Madison & Adams

if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility.

John Stuart Mill
Silence, May, Opinion
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.191, Hackett Publishing

...there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it may be considered.

John Stuart Mill
Liberty, Doctrine, May
John Stuart Mill (2008). “Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin”, p.99, John Wiley & Sons

There should be perfect freedom, legal and social, to do the action and stand the consequences. It would be a great misunderstanding of this doctrine to suppose that it is one of selfish indifference, which pretends that human beings have no business with each other's conduct in life, and that they should not concern themselves about the well-doing or well-being of one another, unless their own interest is involved.

John Stuart Mill
Selfish, Doctrine, Would Be
"Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin".

I confess that I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other's heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human beings

John Stuart Mill
Crush, Struggle, Thinking
G. W. Smith, John Stuart Mill (1998). “John Stuart Mill's Social and Political Thought: Critical Assessments”, p.262, Psychology Press

There is nothing which an untrained mind shows itself more hopelessly incapable, than in drawing the proper general conclusions from its own experience. And even trained minds, when all their training is on a special subject, and does not extend to the general principles of induction, are only kept right when there are ready opportunities of verifying their inferences by facts.

John Stuart Mill
Opportunity, Drawing, Training
John Stuart Mill (2017). “JOHN STUART MILL - Ultimate Collection: Works on Philosophy, Politics & Economy (Including Memoirs & Essays): Autobiography, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive and More”, p.2782, Madison & Adams

It is given to no human being to stereotype a set of truths, and walk safely by their guidance with his mind's eye closed.

John Stuart Mill
Eye, Mind, Guidance
John Bowring, John Stuart Mill (1837). “The London and Westminster Review”, p.349

Is there any moral enormity which might not be justified by imitation of such a Deity?

John Stuart Mill
Religion, Might, Deities
John Stuart Mill (2008). “Three Essays on Religion”, p.114, Cosimo, Inc.

The peculiarity of the evidence of mathematical truths is that all the argument is on one side.

John Stuart Mill
Sides, Argument, Truth Is
John Stuart Mill (1989). “J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings”, p.38, Cambridge University Press

Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action.

John Stuart Mill
Liberty, Purpose, Action
Source: www.usconstitution.net

My father never permitted anything which I learnt to degenerate into a mere exercise of memory. He strove to make the understanding not only go along with every step of the teaching but...precede it.

John Stuart Mill
Memories, Father, Teaching
"Autobiography". Book by John Stuart Mill, 1960.

Laws and systems of polity always begin by recognizing the relations they find already existing between individuals.

John Stuart Mill
Law, Individual, Relation
John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.412, Oxford University Press, USA

Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.

John Stuart Mill
Mean, Details Of Life, Practice
John Stuart Mill (2017). “The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Memoirs…”, p.189, e-artnow

Miracles have no claim whatever to the character of historical facts and are wholly invalid as evidence of any revelation.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Miracle, Historical
John Stuart Mill (1874). “Three Essays on Religion”, p.239, New York : H. Holt

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
War, Charity, Matter
John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor Mill (2015). “Essays on Sex Equality”, p.227, University of Chicago Press

A state of things in which a large portion of the most active and inquiring intellects find it advisable to keep the genuine principles and grounds of their convictions within their own breasts, and attempt, in what they address to the public, to fit as much as they can of their own conclusions to premises which they have internally renounced, cannot send forth the open, fearless characters, and logical, consistent intellects who once adorned the thinking world.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Thinking, Fearless
John Stuart Mill (2017). “JOHN STUART MILL - Ultimate Collection: Works on Philosophy, Politics & Economy (Including Memoirs & Essays): Autobiography, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive and More”, p.215, Madison & Adams

Whether moral and social phenomena are really exceptions to the general certainty and uniformity of the course of nature; and how far the methods, by which so many of the laws of the physical world have been numbered among truths irrevocably acquired and universally assented to, can be made instrumental to the gradual formation of a similar body of received doctrine in moral and political science.

John Stuart Mill
Nature, Science, Law
John Stuart Mill (2017). “The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Memoirs…”, p.1092, e-artnow

The United States is no more a Christian nation because most of its citizens are Christians than it is a 'white' nation because most of its citizens are white. We are Americans because we practice democracy and believe in republican government, not because we practice revealed religion and believe in Bible-based government.

John Stuart Mill
Christian, Believe, Government

Trade is a social act.

John Stuart Mill
Business, Social, Trade
John Stuart Mill, G. W. Smith (1998). “John Stuart Mill's Social and Political Thought: Freedom”, p.107, Taylor & Francis

There are no means of finding what either one person or many can do, but by trying - and no means by which anyone else can discover for them what it is for their happiness to do or leave undone

John Stuart Mill
Mean, Trying, Undone
John Stuart Mill (2016). “The Subjection of Women”, p.51, John Stuart Mill

When the land is cultivated entirely by the spade and no horses are kept, a cow is kept for every three acres of land.

John Stuart Mill
Horse, Land, Agriculture
John Stuart Mill (1871). “Priciples of POlitical Economy”, p.335

What is contrary to women's nature to do, they never will be made to do by simply giving their nature free play.

John Stuart Mill
Nature, Play, Giving
John Stuart Mill (1870). “The Subjection of Women”, p.48, Hayes Barton Press

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