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 MILLAll ideas need to be heard, because each idea contains one aspect of the truth. By examining that aspect, we add to our own idea of the truth. Even ideas that have no truth in them whatsoever are useful because by disproving them, we add support to our own ideas.
More John Stuart Mill Quotes
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All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.
JOHN STUART MILL -
A man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing “what nobody does,” or of not doing “what everybody does,” is the subject of as much depreciatory remark as if he or she had committed some grave moral delinquency.
JOHN STUART MILL -
I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
The study of science teaches young men to think, while study of the classics teaches them to express thought.
JOHN STUART MILL -
Stupidity is much the same all the world over.
JOHN STUART MILL -
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 -
All ideas need to be heard, because each idea contains one aspect of the truth. By examining that aspect, we add to our own idea of the truth. Even ideas that have no truth in them whatsoever are useful because by disproving them, we add support to our own ideas.
JOHN STUART MILL -
No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.
JOHN STUART MILL -
All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.
JOHN STUART MILL






