John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Millwas an English philosopher, political economist, feminist, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century." Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth20 May 1806
men errors evil
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.
father answers world
[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?
religion atheism facts
Every established fact which is too bad to admit of any other defence is always presented to us as an injunction of religion.
power government evil
The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.
mistake land errors
To mistake money for wealth, is the same sort of error as to mistake the highway which may be the easiest way of getting to your house or lands, for the house and lands themselves.
memories father teaching
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.
advantage motive privileged
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.
lying philosophy views
Liberty lies in the rights of that person whose views you find most odious.
happiness happy eternal-happiness
Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.
disease routine rebellious
The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.
courage genius eccentric
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.
stupid circles feelings
Stupidity is much the same all the world over. A stupid person's notions and feelings may confidently be inferred from those which prevail in the circle by which the person is surrounded. Not so with those whose opinions and feelings are an emanation from their own nature and faculties.
christian character evil
Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt.
change thinking fundamentals
No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.