John Stuart Mill

"Submission to law is necessary, but the law should be wise."

"The true principle of universal toleration would be the recognition of all doctrines as having some truth."

"Energy is the capacity for effort."

"No one's idea of how he is to conduct himself is good for anything until he forms it for himself."

"Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom."

"A person cannot morally be made to labour for another against their will."

"The fact itself of causing the existence of a human being is one of the most responsible actions in the range of human life."

"She was a woman of strong intellect and fearless expression."

"All good things which exist are the fruits of originality."

"Society has had ample experience in the way of punishing crimes, yet crimes have not diminished."

"The principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement."

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."

"In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service."

"The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."

"A person is not held to absolute perfection in the observance of every rule; he is held only to that degree of care and prudence which is reasonable."

"It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in themselves, but by cultivating it and calling it forth, within the limits imposed by the rights and interests of others, that human beings become a noble and beautiful object of contemplation."

"The two great sources of all the errors in philosophy are these two habits of the mind."

"I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions; but it must be utility in the largest sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being."

"Nationalities refuse to be absorbed; and the idea of an Empire bound together by free consent, voluntary association, and identity of interests, is the only one which commends itself to the thoughts of modern Europe."

"The morality of an action depends upon the motive from which we act."

"The multiplication of happiness is, according to the utilitarian ethics, the object of virtue."

"Everyone has heard of the statistical regularity of the most random and capricious phenomena when they are aggregated in large numbers."

"Conventional morality is a net of lies that keeps us confined."

"The mind of a man, if it has lost its tendency to expand and improve, has lost the most essential element of its character."

"Custom is the great guide of human life."

"Logic is a science whose practical use is great and whose theoretical interest is profound."

"The only unfailing talisman is labour."

"The time is always ripe to do right."

"A cultivated mind—I do not say a learned one, but a cultivated one—can alone be perfectly free."

"To give any fair play to the nature of any human being, it is necessary that different persons should be allowed to lead different lives."