“The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.”

Over one’s mind and over one’s body the individual is sovereign.

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.

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.

As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.

In the long-run, the best proof of a good character is good actions.

With equality of experience and of general faculties, a woman usually sees much more than a man of what is immediately before her.

The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.

The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.

To understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.

Liberty consists in doing what one desires.

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.

Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.

Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

And tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others’ lives.

What I had to say was, in general, I’m not really a fan of any one genre of any kind of film.

My general plan is good, though in the detail there may be faults.

And here he is recommending the firing of the top cop doing the Russia investigation, in clear violation of what he had, the attorney general, had committed to doing.

In general, the final filter of Hollywood is for-profit. Nothing goes through unless it can make money.

In general, people like that are going to be more progressive, more open minded, a little more altruistic.

A lot of the television industry is so cookie-cutter. In general, there are so many shows that are easy and bland to watch.

Americans in general have a lot of compassion, we just don’t always have the same view of how that compassion is implemented.