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Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

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

Action Himself Individual Person
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
When one’s ideas are not challenged, one’s ability to defend them weakens.
JOHN STUART MILL

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

Choice Custom Himself
How can great minds be produced in a country where the test of great minds is agreeing in the opinion of small minds?
JOHN STUART MILL

Greatness Mindset Opinion Small
In this age, the man who dares to think for himself and to act independently does a service to his race.
JOHN STUART MILL

Age Dare Independent Man Race Service
Language is the light of the mind.
JOHN STUART MILL

Language Light Mindset
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
All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
JOHN STUART MILL

Assumption Discussion Fall Silence
The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar; particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England
JOHN STUART MILL

History Liberty Portion Poverty Struggle
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
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
The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.
JOHN STUART MILL

Courage Human Intellectual Mindset Pay Price
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.
JOHN STUART MILL

Moral State Ugly War Worst
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
A person should be free to do as he likes in his own concerns; but he ought not to be free to do as he likes in acting for another, under the pretext that the affairs of the other are his own affairs.
JOHN STUART MILL

Affair Concern Freedom Himself Person

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

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Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

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