Mill, John Stuart

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called."

"I regard utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions."

"The greatest happiness principle is the foundation of morals and legislation."

"Custom is the most powerful of laws."

"Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of."

"The labor movement means thinking, means something."

"Good institutions tend to develop only under favorable conditions."

"A man cannot get a coat that fits him from a large warehouse any more than he can a life from the large institutions."

"The evil of tyranny is that it squelches individual development."

"Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends."

"The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement."

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

"Let rivalry be purified, as a motive to exertion, by being exerted on behalf of the commonweal, not against it."

"Great thinkers always encounter violent opposition from mediocrities."

"The truth is, that the natural tendency of representative institutions is in so far to ennoble the character of the people."

"I have learned that all the good things in life are achieved through effort."

"As mankind improve, the principles upon which they act shall be more conformable to reason."

"Freedom of speech and freedom of action are not two different things; they are the same thing."

"The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact."

"No society in which liberty is not, on the whole, respected, is free."

"The only truth which has any intrinsic merit of being believed is that of being useful."

"I am as convinced as I am of any conclusion I ever arrive at regarding the claims of art."

"The safety of the people is the supreme law."

"No pains are, upon the whole, efficacious in producing the major ends of human life, except those which are exercised."

"There should be different experiments of living; that free scope should be given to varieties of character."

"A high aim forms a noble character, and a high character is not formed without effort."

"The capacity for the nobler feelings is in most natures a very tender plant."

"Society has now fairly got the better of individuality."

"One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests."

"Positive pain or pleasure seems to me essential to being moved."