If religious belief be indeed so necessary to mankind, as we are continually assured that it is, there is great reason to lament, that the intellectual grounds of it should require to be backed by moral bribery or subornation of the understanding. John Stuart Mill More Quotes by John Stuart Mill More Quotes From John Stuart Mill One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests. John Stuart Mill motivational inspirational life There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home. John Stuart Mill experience truth home Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of. John Stuart Mill originality use mind In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. John Stuart Mill break-through order people A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the dominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body. John Stuart Mill government successful education A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill freedom military war The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it. John Stuart Mill citizenship running long The object of universities is not to make skillful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated human beings John Stuart Mill university physicians lawyer To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility. John Stuart Mill hearing assuming opinion the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human intellect to become wise in any other manner. John Stuart Mill wise character men 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. John Stuart Mill majority community government Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends. John Stuart Mill pleasure pain ends It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak. John Stuart Mill strong desire men All good things which exist are the fruits of originality. John Stuart Mill originality fruit positive-thinking The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do. John Stuart Mill teaching education children 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 philosophy thinking The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind. John Stuart Mill mediocrity inspiration power Since the state must necessarily provide subsistence for the criminal poor while undergoing punishment, not to do the same for the poor who have not offended is to give a premium on crime. John Stuart Mill punishment criminals giving When one's ideas are not challenged, one's ability to defend them weakens. John Stuart Mill ability ideas The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary. John Stuart Mill morality moral men
