One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.

—John Stuart Mill

About John Stuart Mill

Portrait of John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, and politician. He was a paradigmatic philosopher of liberalism and has been described as "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He conceived of liberty as...

More quotations from John Stuart Mill

Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable.

—John Stuart Mill

A person may cause evil to others not only by his action but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

—John Stuart Mill

In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service.

—John Stuart Mill

fitting in nonconformity

All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.

—John Stuart Mill

creation art originality

I put the question directly to myself: "Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?" And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, "No!

—John Stuart Mill

change self happiness joy opinions self-consciousness

More quotations tagged with “power”

The essence of government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

—James Madison

Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.

—James A. Garfield

The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish.

—Henrik Ibsen

There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutionsto cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.

History

11 Jul 2015 Added