Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.
JOHN STUART MILLA great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.
More John Stuart Mill Quotes
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Language is the light of the mind.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Stupidity is much the same all the world over.
JOHN STUART MILL -
There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not been refuted, and assuming its truth for the purpose of not permitting its refutation.
JOHN STUART MILL -
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 -
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.
JOHN STUART MILL -
As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.
JOHN STUART MILL -
No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.
JOHN STUART MILL -
I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
JOHN STUART MILL -
To understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.
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 -
So Long as we do not harm others we should be free to think, speak, act, & live as we see fit, without molestation from individuals, law, or gov’t.
JOHN STUART MILL -
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.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economizing. The increase in the value of land, arising as it does from the efforts of an entire community, should belong to the community and not to the individual who might hold title.
JOHN STUART MILL -
When one’s ideas are not challenged, one’s ability to defend them weakens.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.
JOHN STUART MILL -
In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.
JOHN STUART MILL -
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.
JOHN STUART MILL -
There is an imaginary circle drawn around every human being, over which no government should be able to step.
JOHN STUART MILL -
A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Human beings are no longer born to their place in life…but are free to employ their faculties and such favorable chances as offer, to achieve the lot which may appear to them as desirable.
JOHN STUART MILL -
The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.
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.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.
JOHN STUART MILL