Quotes from John Stuart Mill

toda época ha sostenido opiniones que las épocas posteriores han demostrado ser, no sólo falsas, sino absurdas;

we do not call anything justice which is not a virtue

Whenever the nature of the subject permits the reasoning process to be without danger carried on mechanically, the language should be constructed on as mechanical principles as possible; while in the contrary case it should be so constructed, that there shall be the greatest possible obstacle to a mere mechanical use of it

aim, therefore, of patriots, was to set limits to the power which the ruler should be suffered to exercise over the community; and this limitation was what they meant by liberty.

Every induction is a syllogism with the major premise suppressed.

Never when controversy avoided the subjects which are large and important enough to kindle enthusiasm was the mind of a people stirred up from its foundations, and the impulse given which raised even persons of the most ordinary intellect to something of the dignity of thinking beings.

Free institutions are next to impossible in a country made up of different nationalities. Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion, necessary to the working of representative government, cannot exist. ... it is in general a necessary condition of free institutions that the boundaries of governments should coincide in the main with those of nationalities.

Bas?n özgürlüÄŸü"nün, ahlaksal olarak çökmüÅŸ ya da bask?c? bir yönetime kar?? bir güvence olarak savunulmas?n? gerektirecek günlerin geride kald???n? umuyoruz.

He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right.

The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete skeptics of religion.

Ç?karlar konusunda halk?yla uyuÅŸmam?? bir yasama ya da yürütme organ?n?n, o halk?n neler düÅŸünmesi gerektiÄŸini, hangi öÄŸretileri ya da savunular? duymas?na izin verilebileceÄŸini belirlemesine f?rsat tan?mamak konusunda art?k herhangi bir savunuya gerek kalmam??t?r herhalde.

I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.

Free institutions are next to impossible in a country made up of different nationalities

The justice of giving equal protection to the rights of all, is maintained by those who support the most outrageous inequality in the rights themselves.

Bir kiÅŸi hariç bütün insanl?k ayn? görüÅŸte olsa, tek bir kiÅŸi kar?? görüÅŸte olsa, insanl???n o kiÅŸiyi susturma hakk?, o kiÅŸinin gücü yetse insanl??? susturma hakk?ndan fazla deÄŸildir.

Existe la más grande diferencia entre presumir que una opinión es verdadera, porque oportunamente no ha sido refutada, y suponer que es verdadera a fin de no permitir su refutación.

Ought we therefore to lay on no taxes, and, under whatever provocation, make no wars?

Bir görüÅŸün yararl?l??? da kendi ba??na bir görüÅŸtür; görüÅŸün kendisi kadar tart??mal?, tart??maya aç?k ve tart??ma gerektiren bir ÅŸeydir.

If any one does an act hurtful to others, there is a primâ facie case for punishing him, by law, or, where legal penalties are not safely applicable, by general disapprobation

Why then should tolerance, as far as the public sentiment is concerned, extend only to tastes and modes of life which extort acquiescence by the multitude of their adherents?

First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility. Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

In the case of abstinences indeed—of things which people forbear to do from moral considerations, though the consequences in the particular case might be beneficial—it would be unworthy of an intelligent agent not to be consciously aware that the action is of a class which, if practiced generally, would be generally injurious, and that this is the ground of the obligation to abstain from it.

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. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily or mental and spiritual.

There is the greatest difference between presuming an opinion to be true, because, with every opportunity for contesting it, it has not been refuted, and assuming its truth for the purpose of not permitting its refutation. Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action; and on no other terms can a being with human faculties have any rational assurance of being right.