The feeling of justice may be a particular instinct, and yet require, like all our other instincts, the supervision and enlightenment of a higher reason.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy.
Mankind is always disposed to believe that a subjective feeling, which has no other explanation, is the revelation of some objective reality.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
There can be unjust laws, and therefore law cannot be the supreme criterion of justice.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
It is generally admitted that it is just for a person to receive (good or evil) what they deserve, and unjust for them to receive the good or suffer the evil they do not deserve.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
It is universally admitted that partiality is incompatible with justice; preference given to one person over another, when there is no reason to prefer them, is unjust.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Every person maintains that equality is dictated by justice, unless they think that utility requires inequality.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
We do not call an action wrong unless we mean to imply that the person who has committed it ought to be punished in some way or other [...].
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Justice implies something which it is not only right to do, and wrong not to do, but which some individual person can claim from us as a moral right.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The sentiment of justice [...] is the natural feeling of vengeance, applied through intelligence and sympathy, to those evils that harm both us and society at the same time.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
To have a right is to have something which society ought to guarantee me the possession of.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The interest involved is that of security, the most vital of all interests [...]. Nothing would have any value to us [...] if we could be deprived of a good an instant after having possessed it.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
There are as many differences of opinion, and as many burning discussions, about what is just as about what is useful to society.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
[...] I consider justice grounded on utility to be the most important, the most sacred part of morality.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The entire history of social progress consists in the series of transitions that lead a custom or institution to pass from the rank of a primary necessity [...] to that of a universally condemned injustice.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Bentham's dictum, 'everybody to count for one, nobody for more than one,' might be written under the principle of utility as an explanatory commentary.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Customary morality, that which is consecrated by education and public opinion, is the only one that presents itself to the mind as being obligatory in itself.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
I am bound not to rob, not to murder [...]; but why am I bound to promote the general happiness? If my own happiness lies in something else, why may I not give that the preference?
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The internal sanction of duty, whatever our standard of duty may be, is one and the same—a feeling in our own mind.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
This feeling, when disinterested, and connecting itself with the pure idea of duty [...] forms the essence of Conscience.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Its [moral] binding force consists in the existence of a mass of feeling which must be broken through in order to violate our standard of right, and which [...] manifests itself [...] in the form of remorse.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The ultimate sanction of all morality (external motives apart) is a subjective feeling in our own minds.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Whatever an individual's opinion may be on this point of ontology, the force which constrains him is his own subjective feeling, and is measured exactly by its strength.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The question, 'Need I obey my conscience?' is as present to those who never heard of the principle of utility, as to utilitarians.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
If [...] moral feelings are not innate, but acquired, they are no less for that reason natural. It is natural to man to speak, to reason [...] and yet these are acquired faculties.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The moral faculty, if not a part of our nature, is a natural outgrowth from it: [...] it is capable, to a certain extent, of springing up spontaneously; and is susceptible of being brought by cultivation to a high degree of development.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
There is scarcely any absurdity or mischief which may not be made to act on the human mind with all the authority of conscience.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
This firm foundation [of utilitarian morality] is that of the social feelings of mankind; the desire to be in unity with our fellow creatures.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The social state is at once so natural, so necessary, and so habitual to man [...] that he never conceives himself otherwise than as a member of a body.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
A society of equals can only exist on the understanding that the interests of all are to be regarded equally.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
Every individual has, even now, a deeply rooted conviction that he is a social being, that his feelings and aims should be in harmony with those of his fellow creatures.
1861
Source: Utilitarianism
The wife is actually the slave of her husband, no less, within the limits of legal obligation, than are slaves properly so called.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The husband and wife are one legal person; which is to say that everything that is hers is his, but not the reciprocal [...].
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
It is rare that a slave [...] is a slave at all hours and at all minutes [...]. It is not so with the wife.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The laws of most countries are far worse than the people who execute them, and many of these laws owe their continued existence only to the rarity of their application.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
All that can be said of domestic despotism applies to political despotism.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
It is the irony of life that the most energetic feelings of gratitude and devotion [...] develop in us towards those who, having the power to annihilate our existence [...], are pleased to abstain from it.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
It is for the sake of wicked men that laws must be established.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The excess of dependence to which the woman is reduced inspires [...] the idea that the law has delivered her to them as their thing, to be used at their discretion.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The most common men reserve the violent, morose, openly selfish side of their character for those who do not have the power to resist them.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The relationship of superior to subordinate is the nursery of these character flaws.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
We know that the bad tendencies of human nature are kept within their limits only when they are not allowed to run free.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The only school of true moral sentiment is a society between equals.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The family is a school of despotism in which the virtues of despotism, but also its vices, are lavishly nourished.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The feeling of freedom as it may exist in a man who rests his affections on beings of whom he is the absolute master, is not the true love of freedom.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The less a man is fitted for the possession of power, [...] the more he congratulates himself on the power which the law gives him.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The subject of this essay [...] is Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are familiar.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The 'power of the people over themselves' does not express the true state of the case; [...] self-government [...] is not the government of each by himself, but of each by all the rest.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The people, consequently, may desire to oppress a part of their number; and precautions are as much needed against this as against any other abuse of power.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The 'tyranny of the majority' is now generally included among the evils against which society is required to be on its guard.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Society [...] practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since [...] it penetrates much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaves the soul itself.
1859
Source: On Liberty
There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence: to find that limit [...] is as indispensable [...] as protection against political despotism.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The sole end for which mankind are warranted [...] in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. [...] The only legitimate purpose is to prevent harm to others.
1859
Source: On Liberty
One cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, or because it would be wise.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Utility is 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.
1859
Source: On Liberty
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 [...].
1859
Source: On Liberty
Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The disposition of mankind [...] to impose their own opinions and inclinations as a rule of conduct on others [...] is hardly ever kept under restraint by anything but want of power.
1859
Source: On Liberty
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.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation, those who dissent from the opinion even more than those who hold it.
1859
Source: On Liberty
If a [dissenting] opinion is right, [others] are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if it is wrong, they lose an almost equally great benefit: the clearer perception of truth, produced by its collision with error.
1859
Source: On Liberty
All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility.
1859
Source: On Liberty
In proportion to a man's lack of confidence in his own solitary judgment, he bestows more implicit faith in the infallibility of 'the world' in general.
1859
Source: On Liberty
And the world, for each individual, is the portion of the world with which he is in contact; his party, his sect, his church, his class of society.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth [...], and in no other way can a human being have the rational assurance of being right.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The errors [of the human mind] are corrigible. It is capable of rectifying its mistakes by discussion and experience. Not by experience alone: discussion is necessary to show how experience should be interpreted.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The man who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
1859
Source: On Liberty
No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any other way, and it is not in the nature of human intelligence to become wise in any other way.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The absence of discussion causes not only the grounds to be forgotten, but too often the very meaning of the opinion itself. [...] Instead of a strong conception and a living belief, only a few phrases learned by rote remain.
1859
Source: On Liberty
The fatal tendency of the human race to set aside a thing as soon as it is no longer questioned has caused half of its errors.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Conflicting doctrines, instead of being one true and the other false, share the truth between them; and the dissenting opinion is necessary to supply the rest of the truth of which the received doctrine realizes only a part.
1859
Source: On Liberty
Truth, in the great practical interests of life, is above all a matter of combining and reconciling extremes.
1859
Source: On Liberty
It is not the violent struggle between different parts of the truth that is the formidable evil, but the quiet suppression of one half of the truth.
1859
Source: On Liberty
I believe that the social relations between the two sexes, which subordinate one sex to the other in the name of the law, are wrong in themselves and now constitute one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
As long as an opinion is rooted in feelings, it defies the most decisive arguments [...]. When an opinion is based on feeling only, the more it is maltreated in a debate, the more persuaded its adherents are that their feeling must rest on some reason that has remained out of reach.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and equality; the only legitimate restrictions are those required for the general good.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
Instead of the apotheosis of Reason, we have made another of Instinct; and we call everything instinct which we cannot establish on a rational basis.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
[...] the opinion in favour of the present system, which subordinates the weaker sex to the stronger, rests upon theory only; for there never has been trial made of any other, so that experience [...] cannot be pretended to have pronounced any verdict.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
What was at first a mere brute fact becomes a legal right, guaranteed by society, supported and protected by social forces [...].
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
One does not realize the vitality of institutions that place right on the side of force; one does not know with what tenacity people cling to them.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
What domination ever appears unnatural to those who possess it?
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
So true it is that the word unnatural means uncustomary, and nothing else, and that everything which is habitual appears natural.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
It is a political law of nature that those who are under any power of ancient origin never begin by complaining of the power itself, but only of its oppressive exercise.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
Men are not content with the obedience of women, they arrogate to themselves a right over their feelings. [...] they neglect nothing to enslave their minds.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
What is the peculiar character of the modern world? [...] It is that man is no longer born to the place he will occupy in life [...], but is free to use his faculties [...] to create for himself the fate that seems most desirable to him.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The social subordination of women stands out as an isolated fact in the midst of modern social institutions; it is the only relic of an old intellectual and moral world destroyed everywhere else [...].
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
What is now called the nature of women is an eminently artificial product; it is the result of forced repression in one direction, and unnatural stimulation in another.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
It is entirely superfluous to forbid women what their constitution does not permit them. Competition is sufficient to prevent them from doing anything they cannot do as well as men, their natural competitors.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
When the possessors of a privilege make concessions to those who are deprived of it, it is rarely for any other reason than because the latter acquire the power to extort them.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
It is probable that the arguments against the prerogatives of one sex will attract little general attention, as long as it can be said that women do not complain.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
If women do not complain about the power of husbands, each one complains about her own husband, or the husbands of her friends. It is the same in all other forms of servitude [...].
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
We cannot expect women to devote themselves to the emancipation of their sex, as long as men [...] are not prepared to join them in undertaking it.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
Marriage is the only real servitude recognized by our laws. There are no longer any slaves by law except for the mistress of each house.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The world suffers an extremely serious loss by refusing to make use of one half of the total amount of talent it possesses.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
All selfish tendencies, the cult of self, the unjust preference for oneself [...] have their source and root in the current constitution of the relationship between man and woman.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The principle of the modern movement in morals and politics is that conduct, and conduct alone, gives the right to respect; [...] that merit, not birth, is the only legitimate title to the exercise of power.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
An intimate society between people who are radically different from each other is a pure reverie. Difference may attract, but it is resemblance that retains.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
Any company that does not elevate, debases; and the more intimate and familiar it is, the more it has this result.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The wife who does not push her husband forward holds him back.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
After the first-order necessities, food and clothing, liberty is the first and most imperious need of human nature.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
An active and energetic character, who is denied liberty, seeks power: deprived of self-disposal, they assert their personality by trying to govern others.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
The love of power and the love of liberty are in an eternal antagonism. Where liberty is less, the passion for power is more ardent and more shameless.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women
What [...] color, race, religion, or nationality [...] are for some men, sex is for all women; it is a radical exclusion from almost all honorable occupations.
1869
Source: The Subjection of Women