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In all the more advanced communities the great majority of things are worse done by the intervention of government than the individuals most interested in the matter would do them, or cause them to be done, if left to themselves.

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

Better Different Fools Human Opinion Question Satisfaction
Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.
JOHN STUART MILL

Cultivation Life Mental Reason Satisfaction
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
JOHN STUART MILL

Bad End Goodness Man
Every great movement must experience three stages: ridicule, discussion, adoption.
JOHN STUART MILL

Adoption Experience Greatness Movement
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
We have a right, also, in various ways, to act upon our unfavorable opinion of anyone, not to the oppression of his individuality, but in the exercise of ours.
JOHN STUART MILL

Act Exercise Ourselves Right Way
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.
JOHN STUART MILL

Himself Moral Prevent Purpose Right Willing
The idea that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods, which most experience refutes. History is teeming with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not put down forever, it may be set back for centuries.
JOHN STUART MILL

Experience Forever History Ideas Persecution Truth
The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.
JOHN STUART MILL

Influence Moral Salutation Woman
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
All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
JOHN STUART MILL

Existence Goodness Object Original Result
Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.
JOHN STUART MILL

Errors Opinion Preparation Suffering Thinking Truth
The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people.
JOHN STUART MILL

Force Improvement Liberty People Spirit Willing
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors.
JOHN STUART MILL

Economy Income Industry Neighbor Save Tax
Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.
JOHN STUART MILL

Atmosphere Breathe Freedom Genius
All attempts by the State to bias the conclusions of its citizens on disputed subjects, are evil.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conclusion Evil State Subject
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
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.
JOHN STUART MILL

Children Crime Existence Instruction Mindset Prospect Society Training
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

Development Himself Person Value
It is not because men’s desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.
JOHN STUART MILL

Act Conscience Desire Man Sick Strong Weakness
Life has a certain flavor for those who have fought and risked all that the sheltered and protected can never experience.
JOHN STUART MILL

Experience Flavor Life Risk Shelter
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 general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.
JOHN STUART MILL

Average General Kind Man World
Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.
JOHN STUART MILL

Feeling Mindset Oneself Original
As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conclusion Cultivation Draw Narrow Study
Stupidity is much the same all the world over.
JOHN STUART MILL

Stupidity World
The study of science teaches young men to think, while study of the classics teaches them to express thought.
JOHN STUART MILL

Expression Literature Science Study Teaching Thinking Young

In all the more advanced communities the great majority of things are worse done by the intervention of government than the individuals most interested in the matter would do them, or cause them to be done, if left to themselves.

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In all the more advanced communities the great majority of things are worse done by the intervention of government than the individuals most interested in the matter would do them, or cause them to be done, if left to themselves.

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Popular Authors

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