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A man of clear ideas errs grievously if he imagines that whatever is seen confusedly does not exist it belongs to him, when he meets with such a thing, to dispel the midst, and fix the outlines of the vague form which is looming through it.

John Stuart Mill

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John Stuart Mill
Age: 67 †
Born: 1806
Born: January 1
Died: 1873
Died: January 1
Autobiographer
Clerk
Economist
Egalitarianism
Philosopher
Politician
Suffragist
Writer
Islington
J. S. Mill
Clear
Vague
Confusedly
Whatever
Persistence
Grievously
Form
Belongs
Errs
Doe
Midst
Dispel
Ideas
Curiosity
Looming
Thing
Exist
Imagines
Men
Seen
Outlines
Imagine
Meets

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Men do not desire to be rich, but to be richer than other men.
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The process of tracing regularity in any complicated, and at first sight confused, set of appearances, is necessarily tentative we begin by making any supposition, even a false one, to see what consequences will follow from it and by observing how these differ from the real phenomena, we learn what corrections to make in our assumption.
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The cause, then, philosophically speaking, is the sum total of the conditions, positive and negative, taken together the whole of the contingencies of every description, which being realized, the consequent invariably follows.
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Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.
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All errors which a man is likely to commit against advice are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him for his good.
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The habit of analysis has a tendency to wear away the feelings.
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The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
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The feeling of a direct responsibility of the individual to God is almost wholly a creation of Protestantism.
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Strange it is that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free speech but object to their being pushed to an extreme, not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case.
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Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.
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Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law. There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.
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All desirable things... are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as a means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain.
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No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.
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The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.
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The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people.
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Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters.
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Of two pleasures, if there be one which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure.
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To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures.
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The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.
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The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.
John Stuart Mill