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

John Stuart Mill

Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.
JOHN STUART MILL

Feeling Mindset Oneself Original
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

Genius Growth Minority Person Preserve Small
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
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
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
Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economising.
JOHN STUART MILL

Growth Money Rich Risk Sleep
Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom.
JOHN STUART MILL

Atmosphere Breathe Freedom Genius
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
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
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 MILL

Adverse Chance Opinion Subject Supply Truth
In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.
JOHN STUART MILL

Affirmation Correct Debate Intellectual Wrong
Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.
JOHN STUART MILL

Happiness Myself Object Thinking
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
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
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conscience Form Goodness Harm Man Oneself
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
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
When one’s ideas are not challenged, one’s ability to defend them weakens.
JOHN STUART MILL

Ability Challenge Defend Ideas Weakness
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
He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.
JOHN STUART MILL

Choice Custom Himself
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
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
A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.
JOHN STUART MILL

Greatness Known Tradition
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.
JOHN STUART MILL

Aspiration Beautiful Natural Presence Sick Society Solitude
A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes–will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.
JOHN STUART MILL

Accomplishment Finding Hands Instrument Man Order Purpose State
Language is the light of the mind.
JOHN STUART MILL

Language Light Mindset
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

Assumption Difference Greatness Opinion Purpose

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

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

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Popular Authors

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