John Stuart Mill Quotes on Freedom
Mill's On Liberty (1859) gives the canonical liberal defense of individual freedom: the only purpose for which power can rightly be exercised over a member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others. The harm principle delimits the legitimate scope of social and legal coercion, and the chapter on liberty of thought and discussion mounts the strongest defense in the canon of free expression as a precondition of finding truth. Mill's framework grounds liberty not in natural rights but in utility, broadly construed to include the development of human individuality as a constituent of well-being.
Quotes
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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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“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.”
Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion -
Attributed to John Stuart Mill:
“All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.”