Quotessence
Home / Authors / John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllHumansMenOpinionIfsMayLibertyPeoplePersonsMindMankindGovernmentMoralIndividualHuman BeingsScienceStatesFeelingsCharacterPositive AtheismShould

Famous John Stuart Mill Quotes

“The prevailing tendency to regard all the marked distinctions of human character as innate, and in the main indelible, and to ignore the irresistible proofs that by far the greater part of those differences, whether between individuals, races, or sexes are such as not only might but naturally would be produced by differences in circumstances, is one of the chief hinderances to the rational treatment of great social questions, and one of the greatest stumbling blocks to human improvement.”

HumansCharacterMightWould BeIndividualSocialSexDifferencesRaceGreaterCircumstancesEthicsRegardProofImprovementRationalTendenciesBlockChiefsDistinctionTreatmentInnateIrresistiblePrevailingStumblingIndelibleStumbling Blocks
Book:Autobiography of John Stuart Mill
Create image

“Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.”

GivingHumansHas BeensMadeCharacterChristianLyingFallFoundHeavenHellAtheismMoralityHorrorAuthorityThreatPositive AtheismSelfishReactionsDoctrineSensualityObedienceMotiveAppropriateIdolsVirtuousPassiveSubmissionAsceticismLegalityChristian MoralityVirtuous Life
Book:Utilitarianism, liberty, and representative government
Create image

“A state of things in which a large portion of the most active and inquiring intellects find it advisable to keep the genuine principles and grounds of their convictions within their own breasts, and attempt, in what they address to the public, to fit as much as they can of their own conclusions to premises which they have internally renounced, cannot send forth the open, fearless characters, and logical, consistent intellects who once adorned the thinking world.”

ThinkingWorldStatesCharacterPrinciplesFitConvictionIntellectActiveGenuineConclusionFearlessAddressesConsistentBreastsLogicalPortionsPremisesInquiringAdvisable
Book:JOHN STUART MILL - Ultimate Collection: Works on Philosophy, Politics & Economy (Including Memoirs & Essays): Autobiography, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive and More
Create image

“All women are brought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to that of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is their nature to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.”

MenYearsSelfCharacterGovernmentBeliefMoralityIdealsOppositesAffectionSelf ControlSubmissionSelf WillAbnegationLive For Others
Book:The Subjection of Women
Create image

“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.”

WellsHas BeensSaidCharacterActionChristianEvilMoralityNegativeIdealsPositive AtheismPursuitReactionsInnocenceProtestPassivePaganismEnergeticAbstinenceWell SaidChristian Morality
Author:John Stuart Mill
Create image

“In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.”

PeopleShouldCharacterAgeOrderMoralOpinionBreakDangerExampleAmountGeniusMarkMereDareTyrannyChiefsKneesCustomsConformityDesirableRefusalEccentricVigorReproachBreak ThroughStrength Of CharacterEccentricityMoral CourageNon Conformity
Book:Mill's On Liberty
Create image

“the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human intellect to become wise in any other manner.”

MenWayMindHumansPersonsSaidWholeCharacterHuman BeingsOpinionKnowingStudyWiseSubjectsApproachHearingIntellectVariety
Book:On Liberty
Create image

“A person whose desires and impulses are his own - are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture - is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has character.”

PersonsHas BeensSaidCharacterDesireCultureExpressionImpulseEnginesSteamSteam Engines
Book:On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays
Create image

“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.”

PeoplePersonsCharacterOrderIndividualNumbersTroubleGeniusMembersCapableExesFittingHurtfulMouldSmall NumbersCompression
Book:On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays
Create image

“The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them ... It is not so with the Distribution of Wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely. The things once there, mankind, individually or collectively, can do with them as they like.”

HumansMatterCharacterTruthLawScienceCan DoWealthConditionsMankindInstitutionsProductionsDistributionArbitraryOptionalDistribution Of Wealth
Book:Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical and Explanatory Notes and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
Create image

“... what is really inspiriting and ennobling in the doctrine of freewill, is the conviction that we have real power over the formation of our own character; that our will, by influencing some of our circumstances, can modify our future habits or capabilities of willing.”

RealCharacterInfluenceWillingHabitCircumstancesConvictionDoctrineFree WillOur FutureCapabilityFormationReal Power
Book:Autobiography John Stuart Mill: Top Biography
Create image

“All social inequalities which have ceased to be considered expedient, assume the character not of simple inexpediency, but of injustice, and appear so tyrannical, that people are apt to wonder how they ever could have. been tolerated; forgetful that they themselves perhaps tolerate other inequalities under an equally mistaken notion of expediency, the correction of which would make that which they approve seem quite as monstrous as what they have at last learnt to condemn.”

PeopleHas BeensCharacterSeemsLastsSocialSimpleWonderAssumingNotionInjusticeInequalityTolerateMistakenCould Have BeenMonstrousCorrectionsForgetfulExpediencyUtilitarianismSocial Inequality
Book:On Liberty and Utilitarianism
Create image

“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.”

IfsMindPersonsCharacterMightScienceIndividualGivenActingEventsPhilosophicalDoctrineCertaintyMotiveDisposition
Book:A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive: Mill's Works
Create image