Quotes from On Liberty and Other Essays

John Stuart Mill ·  640 pages

Rating: (5.5K votes)


“Protection, therefore, against tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and, if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own.”
― John Stuart Mill, quote from On Liberty and Other Essays


“But reflecting persons perceived that when society is itself the tyrant—society collectively, over the separate individuals who compose it—its means of tyrannizing are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.”
― John Stuart Mill, quote from On Liberty and Other Essays


“On the average, a person who cares for other people, for his country, or for mankind, is a happier man than one who does not; but of what use is it to preach this doctrine to a man who cares for nothing but his own ease, or his own pocket? He cannot care for other people if he would. It is like preaching to the worm who crawls on the ground, how much better it would be for him if he were an eagle.”
― John Stuart Mill, quote from On Liberty and Other Essays


“Governments must be made for human beings as they are, or as they are capable of speedily becoming.”
― John Stuart Mill, quote from On Liberty and Other Essays


“is the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity.”
― John Stuart Mill, quote from On Liberty and Other Essays



About the author

John Stuart Mill
Born place: in Pentonville, London, England, The United Kingdom
Born date May 20, 1806
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“As the dog sprinted back, Jack said to the girl, "Sweetheart,honey, why do you have to be so hateful?"
"Why not?" Ellie said. "It's not like being good ever got me anywhere.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, quote from Being and Nothingness


“Everone has a pain thermometer that goes from zero to ten. No one will make a change until they reach ten. Nine won't do it. At nine you are still afraid. Only ten will move you, and when you're there, you'll know. No one can make that decision for you.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World


“Trying not to think about it is only making it worse.”
― Cat Patrick, quote from Forgotten


“There were several recently dug graves in the churchyard, but I found only one that was freshly dug and covered with fresh flowers. I had known Anna only from a few laughing words, from the light in her eyes, a touch of hands and a fleeting kiss, but I felt an ache inside me such as I had not felt since I was a child, since my father’s death. I looked up at the church steeple, a dark arrow pointing at the moon and beyond, and tried with all my heart and mind to believe she was up there somewhere in that vast expanse of infinity, up there in Sunday-school Heaven, in Big Joe’s happy Heaven. I couldn’t bring myself to think it. I knew she was lying in the cold earth at my feet. I knelt down and kissed the earth, then left her there. The moon sailed above me, following behind me, through the trees, lighting my way back to camp. By the time I got there I had no more tears left to cry. The”
― Michael Morpurgo, quote from Private Peaceful


Interesting books

Beachcombers
(14.5K)
Beachcombers
by Nancy Thayer
The Soldier's Wife
(12.9K)
The Soldier's Wife
by Margaret Leroy
One Night with a Hero
(10.7K)
One Night with a Her...
by Laura Kaye
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
(8.1K)
The Last Stand: Cust...
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Museum of Thieves
(4.8K)
Museum of Thieves
by Lian Tanner
MirrorMask
(6.4K)
MirrorMask
by Neil Gaiman

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.