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John Stuart Mill Quotes - Page 8

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The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it

The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it

John Stuart Mill
Spiritual, Real, Understanding
John Stuart Mill (1913). “On Liberty: The philosophical work that changed society for ever”, p.42, Harriman House Limited

The idea is essentially repulsive, of a society held together only by the relations and feelings arising out of pecuniary interest.

John Stuart Mill
Ideas, Feelings, Together

Not only the grounds of the opinion are forgotten in the absence of discussion, but too often the meaning of the opinion itself... Instead of a vivid conception and a living belief, there remain only a few phrases retained by rote; or, if any part, the shell and husk only of the meaning is retained, the finer essence being lost.

John Stuart Mill
Essence, Phrases, Shells
Source: www.usconstitution.net

I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any hon. Gentleman will question it.

John Stuart Mill
Stupid, Believe, Mean

No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.

John Stuart Mill
Wife, Slave, Length
The Subjection of Women ch. 2 (1869)

The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity: and this tendency is increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their effect being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more and more below the highest level of instruction in the community.

John Stuart Mill
Government, Hands, Class
John Stuart Mill (2016). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.196, John Stuart Mill

The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear from thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.

John Stuart Mill
Effort, Desire, Human Nature
John Stuart Mill (1866). “Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy”, p.453

Whatever helps to shape the human being - to make the individual what he is, or hinder him from being what he is not - is part of his education.

John Stuart Mill
Growth, Shapes, Helping
John Stuart Mill (1867). “Inaugural Addresse, Delivered to the University of St. Andrews: Feb. 1st 1867”, p.3

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
Life, Party, Order
'On Liberty' (1859) ch. 2

[My father] impressed upon me from the first, that the manner in which the world came into existence was a subject on which nothing was known: that the question, "Who made me?" cannot be answered, because we have no experience or authentic information from which to answer it; and that any answer only throws the difficulty a step further back, since the question immediately presents itself, "Who made God?

John Stuart Mill
Father, Information, Firsts
John Stuart Mill (2015). “Autobiography John Stuart Mill: Top Biography”, p.19, 谷月社

The demand for commodities is not the demand for labor.

John Stuart Mill
Demand, Commodity, Labor

The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.

John Stuart Mill
Routine, Disease, Rebellious

Each undervalues that part of the materials of thought with which he is not familiar.

John Stuart Mill
Familiar, Materials, Familiarity
John Stuart Mill (2007). “Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy”, p.124, Cosimo, Inc.

All errors which a man is likely to commit against advice are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him for his good.

John Stuart Mill
Men, Errors, Evil

Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Made, Circumstances
John Stuart Mill (1865). “On Liberty”, p.34

Political Economy, in truth, has never pretended to give advice to mankind with no lights but its own; though people who knew nothing but political economy (and therefore knew it ill) have taken upon themselves to advise, and could only do so by such lights as they had.

John Stuart Mill
Taken, Light, People
John Stuart Mill (2015). “Autobiography of John Stuart Mill”, p.128, Sheba Blake Publishing

All acts suppose certain dispositions, and habits of mind and heart, which may be in themselves states of enjoyment or of wretchedness, and which must be fruitful in other consequences besides those particular acts.

John Stuart Mill
Heart, Mind, May
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.258, Hackett Publishing

But these few are the salt of the earth; without them, human life would become a stagnant pool. Not only is it they who introduce good things which did not before exist, it is they who keep the life in those which already existed.

John Stuart Mill
Individuality, Earth, Salt
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.200, Hackett Publishing

I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.

John Stuart Mill
Men, Class, Despair
John Stuart Mill (1873). “Autobiography”, p.290

If religious belief be indeed so necessary to mankind, as we are continually assured that it is, there is great reason to lament, that the intellectual grounds of it should require to be backed by moral bribery or subornation of the understanding.

John Stuart Mill
Religious, Understanding, Intellectual
John Stuart Mill (1874). “Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism”, p.71

It is useful that while mankind are imperfect there should be different opinions, so is it that there should be different experiments of living; that free scope should be given to varieties of character, short of injury to others.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Different Opinions, Imperfect
"On Liberty: Mill's Works".

Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.

John Stuart Mill
Selfish, Animal, Intelligent
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.101, Hackett Publishing

When a thing is bought not for its use but for its costliness, cheapness is no recommendation. As Sismondi remarks, the consequence of cheapening articles of vanity, is not that less is expended on such things, but that the buyers substitute for the cheapened article some other which is more costly, or a more elaborate quality of the same thing; and as the inferior quality answered the purpose of vanity equally well when it was equally expensive, a tax on the article is really paid by nobody: it is a creation of public revenue by which nobody loses.

John Stuart Mill
Vanity, Quality, Purpose
John Stuart Mill (1862). “Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy”, p.460

Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion, necessary to the working of the representative government, cannot exist.

John Stuart Mill
Government, People, Feelings
John Stuart Mill (1861). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.296

I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.

John Stuart Mill
Community, Force, Civilized
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, Hackett Publishing

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