“People are not aware how entirely, in former ages, the law of superior strength was the rule of life; how publicly and openly it was avowed, I do not say cynically or shamelessly — for these words imply a feeling that there was something in it to be ashamed of, and no such notion could find a place in the faculties of any person in those ages, except a philosopher or a saint.”

—  John Stuart Mill , The Subjection of Women

Source: The Subjection of Women (1869), Ch. 1

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

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