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The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

John Stuart Mill

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
He who lets the world choose his plan of life for him has need of no other faculty than that of ape-like imitation.
JOHN STUART MILL

Choice Himself Imitation Planning World
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

Grave Man Moral Remark Woman
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
Landlords grow rich in their sleep without working, risking or economising.
JOHN STUART MILL

Growth Money Rich Risk Sleep
It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.
JOHN STUART MILL

Human Invention Light Question
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
The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.
JOHN STUART MILL

Advancement Custom Despotism Human
To mistake money for wealth, is the same sort of error as to mistake the highway which may be the easiest way of getting to your house or lands, for the house and lands themselves.
JOHN STUART MILL

Easy Home Land Mistake Money Way Wealth
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 always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.
JOHN STUART MILL

Force Hope Listening Side
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
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
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
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
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

Children Crime Existence Instruction Mindset Prospect Society Training
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 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
The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.
JOHN STUART MILL

Influence Moral Salutation Woman
The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Compose Individual State Worth
A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conviction Feeling Man Raise
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
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
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
Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.
JOHN STUART MILL

Cultivation Life Mental Reason Satisfaction
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
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.
JOHN STUART MILL

Himself Moral Prevent Purpose Right Willing

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

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The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.

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