1001Philosophers

John Stuart Mill Quotes on Virtue

John Stuart Mill was a 19th-century British philosopher and political economist, the most influential English-language thinker of the Victorian era. This page collects quotes attributed to John Stuart Mill on the topic of virtue, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • 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.”

  • Attributed to John Stuart Mill:

    “The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”

  • 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.”

  • Attributed to John Stuart Mill:

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