John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

"“It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question.”"
62 Quotes
"“It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question.”"
John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism
"“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary 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 On Liberty
"Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends."
John Stuart Mill
"The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself."
John Stuart Mill
"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men."
John Stuart Mill
"What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs."
John Stuart Mill
"It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being."
John Stuart Mill
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
John Stuart Mill
"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
"Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth."
John Stuart Mill
"The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes."
John Stuart Mill
"Of two pleasures, if there be one which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure."
John Stuart Mill
"Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience."
John Stuart Mill
"There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home."
John Stuart Mill
"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
John Stuart Mill
"The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind."
John Stuart Mill
"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
"The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power."
John Stuart Mill
"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 sufficient warrant."
John Stuart Mill
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