John Stuart Mill Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of John Stuart Mill's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Philosopher John Stuart Mill's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 360 quotes on this page collected since May 20, 1806! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
  • The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.

    John Stuart Mill, Harriet Taylor Mill (1970). “Essays on Sex Equality”, p.238, University of Chicago Press
  • Almost all rich veins of original and striking speculation have been opened by systematic half-thinkers.

    John Stuart Mill (2008). “Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin”, p.67, John Wiley & Sons
  • A [psychological] difficulty is not an impossibility.

  • In early times, the great majority of the male sex were slaves, as well as the whole of the female. And many ages elapsed, some of them ages of high cultivation, before any thinker was bold enough to question the rightfulness, and the absolute social necessity, either of the one slavery or of the other.

    Sex   Age   Slavery  
    John Stuart Mill (2016). “The Subjection of Women: Mill's Works”, p.5, VM eBooks
  • The doctrine called Philosophical Necessity is simply this: that, given the motives which are present to an individual's mind, and given likewise the character and disposition of the individual, the manner in which he will act might be unerringly inferred: that if we knew the person thoroughly, and knew all the inducements which are acting upon him, we could foretell his conduct with as much certainty as we can predict any physical event.

    John Stuart Mill (2016). “A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive: Mill's Works”, p.852, VM eBooks
  • The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.

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

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

    Art   Mean   Giving  
    John Stuart Mill (2016). “Utilitarianism: Mill's Works”, p.3, VM eBooks
  • The cause, then, philosophically speaking, is the sum total of the conditions, positive and negative, taken together; the whole of the contingencies of every description, which being realized, the consequent invariably follows.

    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.200
  • 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.

    Source: www.usconstitution.net
  • All free communities have both been more exempt from social injustice and crime, and have attained more brilliant prosperity, than any others, or than they themselves after they have lost their freedom.

    John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.217, OUP Oxford
  • To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.

    John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.163, Hackett Publishing
  • The idea that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods, which most experience refutes. History is teeming with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not put down forever, it may be set back for centuries.

    Truth   Ideas   Forever  
  • The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow it but to amend it.

    Life   Success   Nature  
    John Stuart Mill (2008). “Three Essays on Religion”, p.54, Cosimo, Inc.
  • Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

    Men   Good Man   Apathy  
    "On Education" (1867)
  • It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.

    Utilitarianism ch. 2 (1861)
  • The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.

  • So much barbarism, however, still remains in the transactions of most civilized nations, that almost all independent countries choose to assert their nationality by having, to their inconvenience and that of their neighbors, a peculiar currency of their own.

    John Stuart Mill (2016). “Principles of Political Economy: Mill's Works”, p.251, VM eBooks
  • How can great minds be produced in a country where the test of great minds is agreeing in the opinion of small minds?

  • In proportion as the people are accustomed to manage their affairs by their own active intervention, instead of leaving them to the government, their desires will turn to repelling tyranny, rather than to tyrannizing: while in proportion as all ready initiative and direction resides in the government, and individuals habitually feel and act as under its perpetual tutelage, popular institutions develop in them not the desire of freedom, but an unmeasured appetite for place and power.

  • If it were felt that the free development of individuality is one of the leading essentials of well-being; that it is not only a coordinate element with all that is designated by the terms civilisation, instruction, education, culture, but is itself a necessary part and condition of all those things; there would be no danger that liberty should be undervalued.

    John Stuart Mill (1989). “J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings”, p.57, Cambridge University Press
  • So Long as we do not harm others we should be free to think, speak, act, & live as we see fit, without molestation from individuals, law, or gov't.

    Thinking   Law   Long  
  • There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.

    John Stuart Mill (1864). “On Liberty”, p.94
  • 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 (1864). “On Liberty”, p.27
  • In proportion to the development of his individuality, each person becomes more valuable to himself, and is therefore capable of being more valuable to others. . . .

    John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.62, OUP Oxford
  • 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, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.101, Hackett Publishing
  • 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.

    Taken   Light   People  
    John Stuart Mill (2015). “Autobiography of John Stuart Mill”, p.128, Sheba Blake Publishing
  • [A] man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing "what nobody does," or of not doing "what everybody does," is the subject of as much depreciatory remark as if he or she had committed some grave moral delinquency.

    Men   Doe   Moral  
    John Stuart Mill (2010). “The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, The Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism”, p.70, Modern Library
  • A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it. They are more or less unfit for liberty; and although it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it

    "Considerations on Representative Government". Book by John Stuart Mill (p. 6), 1861.
  • Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.

    Mean   Men   Might  
    John Stuart Mill (2008). “Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin”, p.112, John Wiley & Sons
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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 360 quotes from the Philosopher John Stuart Mill, starting from May 20, 1806! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!