black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.

John Stuart Mill

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

Action Character Evidence Goodness
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

Freedom Government Harm Law Live Thinking
The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.
JOHN STUART MILL

Eternal Liberty Love Power
Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conservative People Stupidity True
There is an imaginary circle drawn around every human being, over which no government should be able to step.
JOHN STUART MILL

Circle Government Imagination Step
All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
JOHN STUART MILL

Assumption Discussion Fall Silence
The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.
JOHN STUART MILL

Government Necessary Power Reason Restriction
All ideas need to be heard, because each idea contains one aspect of the truth. By examining that aspect, we add to our own idea of the truth. Even ideas that have no truth in them whatsoever are useful because by disproving them, we add support to our own ideas.
JOHN STUART MILL

Aspect Examination Ideas Ourselves Support Truth
The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.
JOHN STUART MILL

Advancement Custom Human Obstacle
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

Discussion Himself Live Opinion Person Possible Strong Truth
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.
JOHN STUART MILL

Development Force Human Live Machine Nature Requirement Tree
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

Achievement Appearance Born Chance Desire Freedom Human Life Place
He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.
JOHN STUART MILL

Choice Custom Himself
The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.
JOHN STUART MILL

Activity Choice Discrimination Faculty Human Mental
The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.
JOHN STUART MILL

Himself Liberty Limitation Nuisance People
When one’s ideas are not challenged, one’s ability to defend them weakens.
JOHN STUART MILL

Ability Challenge Defend Ideas Weakness
All political revolutions, not affected by foreign conquest, originate in moral revolutions. The subversion of established institutions is merely one consequence of the previous subversion of established opinions.
JOHN STUART MILL

Establishment Moral Opinion Politics Revolution
I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
JOHN STUART MILL

Desire Learning Satisfaction Seek
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

Action Himself Individual Person
All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
JOHN STUART MILL

Existence Goodness Object Original Result
To understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.
JOHN STUART MILL

Different Understand Unique Woman
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

Certain Discussion Fake Opinion Refuse Silence
Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.
JOHN STUART MILL

Happiness Philosophy Question
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
JOHN STUART MILL

Home Meaning Personal Realize Truth
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

Economy Growth Hold Rich Sleep Title
The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Compose Individual State Worth
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.
JOHN STUART MILL

Better Fight Himself Man Misery Willing

The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More John Stuart Mill Quotes