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Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.

John Stuart Mill

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

Community Government Interesting Reason Worst
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
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 fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.
JOHN STUART MILL

Errors Fatal Mistake Reason Tendency Thinking
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
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 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
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
Liberty consists in doing what one desires.
JOHN STUART MILL

Desire Liberty Oneself
All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
JOHN STUART MILL

Assumption Discussion Fall Silence
There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.
JOHN STUART MILL

Force Hope Listening Side
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
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
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 understand one woman is not necessarily to understand any other woman.
JOHN STUART MILL

Different Understand Unique Woman
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 only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Deserve Effort Freedom Name Pursue
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
All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.
JOHN STUART MILL

Action Existence People Value
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
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
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
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
The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.
JOHN STUART MILL

Ability Action Himself Pupil Work
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
The love of power and the love of liberty are in eternal antagonism.
JOHN STUART MILL

Eternal Liberty Love Power
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

Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.

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Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.

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Popular Authors

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