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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

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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
Thing
Absolutes
Assuming
Absolute
Silencing
False
Infallibility
Refuse
Assumption
Hearing
Assume
Opinion
Discussion
Sure
Certainty

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A people may prefer a free government, but if by momentary discouragement or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or trust him with powers to subvert their institutions, in all these cases they are unfit for liberty.
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Political Economy as a branch of science is extremely modern but the subject with which its enquiries are conversant has in all ages necessarily constituted one of the chief practical interests of mankind.
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[A] man and still more the woman, who can be accused either of doing what nobody does, or of not doing what everybody does, is the subject of as much depreciatory remark as if he or she had committed some grave moral delinquency.
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Since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.
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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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So Long as we do not harm others we should be free to think, speak, act, & live as we see fit, without molestation from individuals, law, or gov't.
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As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another.
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The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.
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How can great minds be produced in a country where the test of great minds is agreeing in the opinion of small minds?
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Everything must be free to be written and published without restraint.
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All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
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So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses in stability by having a preponderating weight of argument against it.
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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 idea is essentially repulsive, of a society held together only by the relations and feelings arising out of pecuniary interest.
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The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
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Liberty consists in doing what one desires.
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A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule.
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However unwillingly a person who has a strong opinion may admit the possibility that his opinion may be false, he ought to be moved by the consideration that, however true it may be, if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.
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Judgement is given to men that they may use it. Because it may be used erroneously, are men to be told that they ought not to use it at all?
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Every opinion which embodies somewhat of the portion of truth which the common opinion omits, ought to be considered precious, with whatever amount of error and confusion that truth may be blended.
John Stuart Mill