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John Stuart Mill Quotes - Page 9

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Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea. To add to the mystery, the domain of our earthly existence is not only an island of

Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea. To add to the mystery, the domain of our earthly existence is not only an island of infinite space, but also in infinite time. The past and the future are alike shrouded from us: we neither know the origin of anything which is, nor its final destination.

John Stuart Mill
Past, Infinite Time, Space
Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism "The Utility of Religion" (1874)

The strongest of all arguments against the interference of the public with purely personal conduct, is that when it does interfere, the odds are that it interferes wrongly, and in the wrong place.

John Stuart Mill
Odds, Doe, Argument
John Stuart Mill, G. W. Smith (1998). “John Stuart Mill's Social and Political Thought: Freedom”, p.195, Taylor & Francis

This is what writers mean when they say that the notion of cause involves the idea of necessity. If there be any meaning which confessedly belongs to the term necessity, it is unconditionalness. That which is necessary, that which must be, means that which will be, whatever supposition we may make in regard to all other things.

John Stuart Mill
Mean, Science, Ideas
John Stuart Mill (1858). “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation”, p.203

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.

John Stuart Mill
Practice, Atheism, Example
John Stuart Mill (1962). “Utilitarianism, Liberty, and Representative Government”

Hardly any original thoughts on mental or social subjects ever make their way among mankind or assume their proper importance in the minds even of their inventors, until aptly selected words or phrases have as it were nailed them down and held them fast.

John Stuart Mill
Mind, Phrases, Original Thought
John Stuart Mill (1858). “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation”, p.426

To think that because those who wield power in society wield in the end that of government, therefore it is of no use to attempt to influence the constitution of the government by acting on opinion, is to forget that opinion is itself one of the greatest active social forces. One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

John Stuart Mill
Thinking, Ninety Nine, Government
John Stuart Mill (2016). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.22, John Stuart Mill

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be booted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle.

John Stuart Mill
Philosophy, Atheism, Principles

Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical judgement, which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every one well knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions against their own fallibility.

John Stuart Mill
Thinking, Judgement, Weight
John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.78, OUP Oxford

Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

John Stuart Mill
Equality, Tolerance, Suffering
John Stuart Mill (1864). “On Liberty”, p.27

To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant; to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures.

John Stuart Mill
Spiritual, Ignorant, Important
John Stuart Mill (1859). “On Liberty”, p.51

That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

John Stuart Mill
Success, Time, Work
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.202, Hackett Publishing

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them.

John Stuart Mill
Advantage, Motive, Concessions
John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor Mill (1970). “Essays on Sex Equality”, p.214, University of Chicago Press

Though it is only in a very imperfect state of the world's arrangements that anyone can best serve the happiness of others by the absolute sacrifice of his own, yet, so long as the world is in that imperfect state, I fully acknowledge that the readiness to make such a sacrifice is the highest virtue which can be found in man.

John Stuart Mill
Sacrifice, Men, Long
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.107, Hackett Publishing

The ends of scientific classification are best answered, when the objects are formed into groups respecting which a greater number of general propositions can be made, and those propositions more important, than could be made respecting any other groups into which the same things could be distributed. ... A classification thus formed is properly scientific or philosophical, and is commonly called a Natural, in contradistinction to a Technical or Artificial, classification or arrangement.

John Stuart Mill
Philosophical, Science, Numbers
"The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill".

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth.

John Stuart Mill
Philosophy, Inspire, Intellectual
John Stuart Mill (2009). “Dissertations and Discussions”, p.201, Cosimo, Inc.

The beliefs which we have most warrant for have no safeguard to rest on but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded. If the challenge is not accepted, or is accepted and the attempt fails, we are far enough from certainty still; but we have done the best that the existing state of human reason admits of; we have neglected nothing that could give the truth a chance of reaching us.

John Stuart Mill
Giving, Challenges, Done
Source: www.usconstitution.net

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
Power, Names, Government
John Stuart Mill (2012). “On Liberty”, p.55, Courier Corporation

The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious.

John Stuart Mill
Strong, Fear, Real
Alexander Bain, John Stuart Mill, James Mill, Andrew Findlater, George Grote (1982). “Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind”, Georg Olms Verlag

The great majority of those who speak of perfectibility as a dream, do so because they feel that it is one which would afford them no pleasure if it were realized.

John Stuart Mill
Dream, Majority, Speak
'Speech on Perfectibility' (1828) in 'Autobiography' (ed. Harold J. Laski, 1924) p. 290

We often hear the teachers of all creeds lamenting the difficulty of keeping up in the minds of believers a lively apprehension of the truth which they nominally recognize, so that it may penetrate the feelings, and acquire a real mastery over the conduct.... When it has come to be a hereditary creed, and to be received passively, not actively ... there is a progressive tendency to forget all of the belief except the formularies ... until it almost ceases to connect itself at all with the inner life of the human being.

John Stuart Mill
Teacher, Real, Feelings
Source: www.usconstitution.net

No longer enslaved or made dependent by force of law, the great majority are so by force of property; they are still chained to a place, to an occupation, and to conformity with the will of an employer, and debarred by the accident of birth to both the enjoyments, and from the mental and moral advantages, which others inherit without exertion and independently of desert. That this is an evil equal to almost any of those against which mankind have hitherto struggles, the poor are not wrong in believing.

John Stuart Mill
Believe, Struggle, Law
John Stuart Mill (2016). “Socialism: Mill's Works”, p.5, VM eBooks

Everything must be free to be written and published without restraint.

John Stuart Mill
Restraint, Written
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.180, Hackett Publishing

Men and governments must act to the best of their ability. There is no such thing as absolute certainty but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life.

John Stuart Mill
Destiny, Men, Purpose
John Stuart Mill (1865). “On Liberty”, p.11

If two or more instances of the phenomenon under investigation have only one circumstance in common, the circumstance in which alone all the instances agree is the cause (or effect) of the given phenomenon.

John Stuart Mill
Science, Two, Causes
John Stuart Mill (1858). “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation”, p.224

Persons of genius are, ex vi termini, more individual than any other people - less capable, consequently, of fitting themselves, without hurtful compression, into any of the small number of moulds which society provides in order to save its members the trouble of forming their character.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Small Numbers, Order
John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.129, OUP Oxford

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