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It is not because men’s desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

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
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

Absence Action Happiness Pain Pleasure Proportion Reverse Right
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 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
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
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
All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
JOHN STUART MILL

Existence Goodness Object Original Result
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
He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.
JOHN STUART MILL

Choice Custom Himself
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
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.
JOHN STUART MILL

Crush Despotism Individual
As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.
JOHN STUART MILL

Conclusion Cultivation Draw Narrow Study
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
JOHN STUART MILL

Kind Man Oneself Opinion Power Silence
Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.
JOHN STUART MILL

Adverse Chance Opinion Subject Supply Truth
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
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
Over one’s mind and over one’s body the individual is sovereign.
JOHN STUART MILL

Body Mindset Oneself Sovereign
Photography is a brief complicity between foresight and luck.
JOHN STUART MILL

Brief Complex Luck Photography
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
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
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
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 idea that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods, which most experience refutes. History is teeming with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not put down forever, it may be set back for centuries.
JOHN STUART MILL

Experience Forever History Ideas Persecution Truth
No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.
JOHN STUART MILL

Fundamental Greatness Improvement Thinking
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
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 worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
JOHN STUART MILL

Compose Individual State Worth

It is not because men’s desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

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It is not because men’s desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

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