John Stuart Mill Quotes

Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.

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.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

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.

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.

Language is the light of the mind.

Photography is a brief complicity between foresight and luck.

The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

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.

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.