There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.
JOHN STUART MILLHe who lets the world choose his plan of life for him has need of no other faculty than that of ape-like imitation.
More John Stuart Mill Quotes
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Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
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To bring a child into existence without a fair prospect of being able, not only to provide food for its body, but instruction and training for its mind is a moral crime, both against the unfortunate offspring and against society.
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There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
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As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.
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Solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur is the cradle of thought and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society can ill do without.
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In this age, the man who dares to think for himself and to act independently does a service to his race.
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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 -
The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.
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A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
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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.
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Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.
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A person should be free to do as he likes in his own concerns; but he ought not to be free to do as he likes in acting for another, under the pretext that the affairs of the other are his own affairs.
JOHN STUART MILL -
However unwillingly a person who has a strong opinion may admit the possibility that his opinion may be false, he ought to be moved by the consideration that, however true it may be, if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.
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Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
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The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.
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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.
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The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
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In the long-run, the best proof of a good character is good actions.
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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, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.
JOHN STUART MILL -
There is an imaginary circle drawn around every human being, over which no government should be able to step.
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Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Men do not desire to be rich, but to be richer than other men.
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Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow.
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The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.
JOHN STUART MILL -
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