“Whatever we may think or affect to think of the present age, we cannot get out of it; we must suffer with its sufferings, and enjoy with its enjoyments; we must share in its lot, and, to be either useful or at ease, we must even partake its character.”

—  John Stuart Mill

"The Spirit of the Age, I", Examiner (9 January 1831), p. 20 Full text online http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/256/50650

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John Stuart Mill 179
British philosopher and political economist 1806–1873

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