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

“If it were only that people have diversities of taste, that is reason enough for not attempting to shape them all after one model. But different persons also require different conditions for their spiritual development, and can no more exist healthily in the same moral, than all the varieties of plants can in the same physical, atmosphere and climate.”

PeopleIfsPersonsDifferentReasonEnoughSpiritualMoralConditionsDevelopmentTasteShapesDiversityModelsPlantClimateVarietyAtmosphereAttemptingSpiritual Development
Book:The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill
Create image

“It can do truth no service to blind the fact, known to all who have the most ordinary acquaintance with literary history, that a large portion of the noblest and most valuable moral teaching has been the work not only of men who did not know, but of men who knew and rejected the Christian faith.”

KnowsMenHas BeensFactsChristianCan DoKnownMoralAtheismTeachingOrdinaryBlindValuablePositive AtheismPortionsRejectedAcquaintanceChristian Faith
Author:John Stuart Mill
Create image

“The majority, being satisfied with the ways of mankind as they now are (for it is they who make them what they are), cannot comprehend why those ways should not be good enough for everybody; and what is more, spontaneity forms no part of the ideal of the majority of moral and social reformers, but is rather looked on with jealousy, as a troublesome and perhaps rebellious obstruction to the general acceptance of what these reformers, in their own judgment, think would be best for mankind.”

ThinkingWayShouldEnoughWould BeFormSocialMoralAtheismMankindAcceptanceJudgmentIdealsMajorityPositive AtheismBe GoodSatisfiedGood EnoughRebelliousSpontaneityTroublesomeReformersObstruction
Book:J. S. Mill: 'On Liberty' and Other Writings
Create image

“[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.”

IfsMenDoeStillsMoralSubjectsCommittedGravesAccusedRemarksDelinquency
Book:The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, The Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism
Create image

“Such are the differences among human beings in their sources of pleasure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the operation on them of different physical and moral agencies, that unless there is a corresponding diversity in their modes of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of which their nature is capable.”

HumansDifferentPainGrowsDifferencesHuman BeingsPleasureMoralGrowing UpShareSourceDiversityCapableFairsOperationsAgencyAestheticStatureCorrespondingFair ShareSusceptibility
Book:The Greatest Happiness Principle - Utilitarianism, On Liberty & The Subjection of Women: The Principle of the Greatest-Happiness: What Is Utilitarianism (Proofs & Principles), Civil & Social Liberty, Liberty of Thought, Individuality & Individual Freedom, Utilitarian Feminism
Create image

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”

ThinkingWarStatesFeelingsMoralMilitaryGunSoldierConservativeUglyPatrioticCombatWorld War IFreedom And LibertyDegradeBearing ArmsInspirational MilitaryWorld War 1Call Of DutyAmerican SoldierEternal VigilanceMilitary HistoryAmerican MilitaryUs MilitaryUgly ThingsWar VeteranMilitary SoldierSoldiers At WarMilitary OperationsGreatest MilitaryMilitary MemorialHistorical MilitaryUnnecessary WarMoral DecayPersonal SafetySpecial OperationsCombat Veterans
Author:John Stuart Mill
Create image

“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.”

WarPurposeCommunityLibertyMoralPowerMembersHarmLibertarianSufficientCivilizedAnti WarAntiwarLibertarianismFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsLimited GovernmentWarrantsFree GovernmentRights And FreedomsLibertarian PartyLimited FreedomPhysical ForceUtilitarianismPower Over OthersHarming OthersPaternalismForce And Power
Author:John Stuart Mill
Create image

“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.”

IfsGivingTwoFeelingsPleasureMoralDecidedObligationDesirablePreferenceMoral Obligation
Book:Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin
Create image

“In a world in which there is so much to interest, so much to enjoy, and so much also to correct and improve, everyone who has this moderate amount of moral and intellectual requisites is capable of an existence which may be called enviable; and unless such a person, through bad laws, or subjection to the will of others, is denied the liberty to use the sources of happiness within his reach, he will not fail to find the enviable existence”

WorldMayPersonsUseLawEnjoyInterestExistenceLibertyMoralFailingSourceAmountCapableIntellectualDeniedModeratesSubjectionSource Of HappinessUtilitarianismHappiness WithinBad Laws
Book:Utilitarianism
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

“Whether moral and social phenomena are really exceptions to the general certainty and uniformity of the course of nature; and how far the methods, by which so many of the laws of the physical world have been numbered among truths irrevocably acquired and universally assented to, can be made instrumental to the gradual formation of a similar body of received doctrine in moral and political science.”

WorldHas BeensMadeBodyLawSciencePoliticalCoursesSocialNatureNaturalMoralMethodDoctrineCertaintyExceptionPolitical ScienceFormationUniformity
Book:The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Memoirs…
Create image

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice - is often the means of their regeneration.”

ThinkingGivingHumansMeanIdeasWarStatesFeelingsPurposeChoicesHuman BeingsMoralHonestVictoryProtectInjusticeUglyPatrioticRegenerationFree ChoiceUgly Things
Book:Thoughts on parliamentary reform. Recent writers on reform. Bain's psychology. A few words on non-intervention. The contest in America. Austin on jurisprudence. Plato
Create image

“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.”

BelieveMadeStillsLawEvilForcePoorMoralStruggleMankindBirthEqualAdvantageMajorityPropertyAccidentsLibertarianDesertEnjoymentDependentOccupationConformityEmployersExertionChained
Book:Socialism: Mill's Works
Create image