A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.

— John Stuart Mill

A person whose desires and impulses are his own—are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture—is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has character…

— John Stuart Mill

As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence of the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another.

— John Stuart Mill

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you will cease to be so.

— John Stuart Mill

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

— John Stuart Mill

Both teachers and learners go to sleep at their post as soon as there is no enemy in the field.

— John Stuart Mill

But these few are the salt of the earth; without them, human life would become a stagnant pool. Not only is it they who introduce good things which did not before exist, it is they who keep the life in those which already existed.

— John Stuart Mill

Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) 'thou shalt not' predominates unduly over 'thou shalt.

— John Stuart Mill

Command and obedience are but unfortunate necessities of human life: society in equality is its normal state.

— John Stuart Mill

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

— John Stuart Mill