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

“It’s funny, when you’re a child you think time will never go by, but when you hit about twenty, time passes like you’re on the fast train to Memphis.”
― Fannie Flagg, quote from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe


“Junction nineteen! Una, she came off at Junction nineteen! You've added an hour to your journey before you even started. Come on, let's get you a drink. How's your love life, anyway?"

Oh GOD. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't rush up to THEM and roar, "How's your marriage going? Still having sex?" Everyone knows that dating in your thirties is not the happy-go-lucky free-for-it-all it was when you were twenty-two and that the honest answer is more likely to be, "Actually, last night my married lover appeared wearing suspenders and a darling little Angora crop-top, told me he was gay/a sex addict/a narcotic addict/a commitment phobic and beat me up with a dildo," than, "Super, thanks.”
― Helen Fielding, quote from Bridget Jones's Diary


“Your heart, Bessie, is an autumn garage.”
― J.D. Salinger, quote from Franny and Zooey


“sometimes in life doing what we shouldn't do is the emergency”
― Bryce Courtenay, quote from The Power of One


“I’d heard you were dead.”
"I heard you wear a red lace corset,” I said matter-of-factly. “But I don’t believe every bit of nonsense that gets rumored about.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, quote from The Wise Man's Fear


Interesting books

The Years of Rice and Salt
(9.1K)
The Years of Rice an...
by Kim Stanley Robinson
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
(30.8K)
How to Marry a Milli...
by Kerrelyn Sparks
Fablehaven: The Complete Series Boxed Set
(6.3K)
Fablehaven: The Comp...
by Brandon Mull
The Inside Story
(11.6K)
The Inside Story
by Michael Buckley
Birds of America
(12.2K)
Birds of America
by Lorrie Moore
The Time of Our Singing
(2.2K)
The Time of Our Sing...
by Richard Powers

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.