John Stuart Mill Quotes
John Stuart Mill was a 19th-century British philosopher and political economist, the most influential English-language thinker of the Victorian era. He refined and defended the utilitarian ethics of Jeremy Bentham in his 1863 work Utilitarianism, while On Liberty, published in 1859, gave classical liberal political theory one of its definitive formulations through the harm principle. The quotes below are attributed to John Stuart Mill, organized by topic.
John Stuart Mill on Freedom
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way.”
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“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 on Happiness
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Attributed to 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.”
John Stuart Mill on Knowledge
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.”
John Stuart Mill on Politics
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”
John Stuart Mill on Truth
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.”
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.”
John Stuart Mill on Virtue
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”
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Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”