Quotes from bookOn Liberty
On Liberty is a philosophical essay by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill. Published in 1859, it applies Mill's ethical system of utilitarianism to society and state. Mill suggests standards for the relationship between authority and liberty. He emphasizes the importance of individuality, which he considers prerequisite to the higher pleasures—the summum bonum of utilitarianism. Furthermore, Mill asserts that democratic ideals may result in the tyranny of the majority. Among the standards proposed are Mill's three basic liberties of individuals, his three legitimate objections to government intervention, and his two maxims regarding the relationship of the individual to society.
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-Being
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. 1: Introductory
Context: The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.
John Stuart Mill book On Liberty
Source: On Liberty (1859), Ch. 1: Introductory
Context: Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and, if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own.
