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John Stuart Mill
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“Whatever we may think or affect to think of the present age, we cannot get out of it; we must suffer with its sufferings, and enjoy with its enjoyments; we must share in its lot, and, to be either useful or at ease, we must even partake its character.”
“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. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.”
“We need not suppose that when power resides in an exclusive class, that class will knowingly and deliberately sacrifice the other classes to themselves: it suffices that, in the absence of its natural defenders, the interest of the excluded is always in danger of being overlooked: and, when looked at, is seen with very different eyes from those of the persons whom it directly concerns.”
“What, in unenlightened societies, colour, race, religion, or in the case of a conquered country, nationality, are to some men, sex is to all women; a peremptory exclusion from almost all honourable occupations, but either such as cannot be fulfilled by others, or such as those others do not think worthy of their acceptance.”
“Nothing contributes more to nourish elevation of sentiments in a people, than the large and free character of their habitations.”
“I well knew that to propose something which would be called extreme, was the true way not to impede but to facilitate a more moderate experiment.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.
John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, and politician. He was a paradigmatic philosopher of liberalism and has been described as "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control, and formulated the Harm principle. He also advocated proportional representation, the emancipation of women, and the development of labour organisations and farm cooperatives, and has been classified as both a Classical Liberal and Social Liberal.