John Stuart Mill: Autobiography, Essay on LibertyP. F. Collier & son, 1909 - 468 pages |
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Abbotsford action altogether become believe Bentham better called Carlyle character Christian classes conduct considerable creed desire discussion doctrine duty Edinburgh Edinburgh Review effect England English evil exercise existence fact faculties father feeling Fraser's Magazine freedom French Revolution Friedrich Schlegel give Goethe human idea important improvement individual influence intellectual interest kind knew labour less liberty living Logic look Lord Durham mankind manner means ment mental mind mode moral nature never object opinions Parliament party period persons philosophy Phocion pleasure political economy practical principle profession question Radical reason Reform regard religion religious Review Samuel Bentham Scott seemed Sir Walter Scott social society speculation speech theory things thinkers THOMAS CARLYLE thought tion true truth Waverley Novels Westminster Review whole Wilhelm von Humboldt writings written wrote
Popular passages
Page 196 - That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
Page 191 - Protection, therefore, against the 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...
Page 196 - Xlt is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. We are not speaking of children, or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood.
Page 197 - 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.
Page 199 - Secondly, the principle requires liberty of tastes and pursuits ; of framing the plan of our life to suit our own character; of doing as we like, subject to such consequences as may follow: without impediment from our fellow-creatures, so long as what we do does not harm them, even though they should think our conduct foolish, perverse, or wrong.
Page 197 - 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.
Page 233 - Truth, in the great practical concerns of life, is so much a question of the reconciling and combining of opposites, that very few have minds sufficiently capacious and impartial to make the adjustment with an approach to correctness, and it has to be made by the rough process of a struggle between combatants fighting under hostile banners.
Page 92 - I never, indeed, wavered in the conviction that happiness is the test of all rules of conduct, and the end of life. But I now thought that this end was only to be attained by not making it the direct end. Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end.
Page 307 - ... a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes— will find...
Page 89 - Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?