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Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

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

Assumption Difference Greatness Opinion Purpose
The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.
JOHN STUART MILL

Eternal Liberty Love Power
The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.
JOHN STUART MILL

Advancement Custom Human Obstacle
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
Language is the light of the mind.
JOHN STUART MILL

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

Feeling Mindset Oneself Original
The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Compose Individual State Worth
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
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
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
There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.
JOHN STUART MILL

Force Hope Listening Side
When one’s ideas are not challenged, one’s ability to defend them weakens.
JOHN STUART MILL

Ability Challenge Defend Ideas Weakness
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
Liberty consists in doing what one desires.
JOHN STUART MILL

Desire Liberty Oneself
There is one plain rule of life. Try thyself unweariedly till thou findest the highest thing thou art capable of doing, faculties and outward circumstances being both duly considered, and then do it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Art Capability Circumstance Life Rule
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 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
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
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
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
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
I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any hon. Gentleman will question it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conservatism Fact Myself Question Stupidity Thinking
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
What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs.
JOHN STUART MILL

Ability Act Belief Majority Man
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

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

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Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

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