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John Stuart Mill Quotes about Character

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In the long-run, the best proof of a good character is good actions.

In the long-run, the best proof of a good character is good actions.

John Stuart Mill
Running, Character, Long
John Stuart Mill (1870). “Utilitarianism”, p.30

... what is really inspiriting and ennobling in the doctrine of freewill, is the conviction that we have real power over the formation of our own character; that our will, by influencing some of our circumstances, can modify our future habits or capabilities of willing.

John Stuart Mill
Real, Character, Doctrine
John Stuart Mill (2015). “Autobiography John Stuart Mill: Top Biography”, p.77, 谷月社

the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human intellect to become wise in any other manner.

John Stuart Mill
Wise, Character, Men
John Stuart Mill (1865). “On Liberty”, p.12

All women are brought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to that of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is their nature to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Men, Self
John Stuart Mill (1870). “The Subjection of Women”, p.27, Hayes Barton Press

In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Order, Break Through
John Stuart Mill (2003). “Mill's On Liberty”, p.81, Agora Publications, Inc.

All social inequalities which have ceased to be considered expedient, assume the character not of simple inexpediency, but of injustice, and appear so tyrannical, that people are apt to wonder how they ever could have. been tolerated; forgetful that they themselves perhaps tolerate other inequalities under an equally mistaken notion of expediency, the correction of which would make that which they approve seem quite as monstrous as what they have at last learnt to condemn.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Simple, People
John Stuart Mill (2008). “On Liberty and Utilitarianism”, p.234, Bantam Classics

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
Christian, Character, Evil
"On Liberty". Philosophical work by John Stuart Mill (ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion), 1859.

Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Made, Circumstances
John Stuart Mill (1865). “On Liberty”, p.34

It is useful that while mankind are imperfect there should be different opinions, so is it that there should be different experiments of living; that free scope should be given to varieties of character, short of injury to others.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Different Opinions, Imperfect
"On Liberty: Mill's Works".

Persons of genius are, ex vi termini, more individual than any other people - less capable, consequently, of fitting themselves, without hurtful compression, into any of the small number of moulds which society provides in order to save its members the trouble of forming their character.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Small Numbers, Order
John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.129, OUP Oxford

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
Character, Expression, Desire
John Stuart Mill (2015). “On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays”, p.59, OUP Oxford

The prevailing tendency to regard all the marked distinctions of human character as innate, and in the main indelible, and to ignore the irresistible proofs that by far the greater part of those differences, whether between individuals, races, or sexes are such as not only might but naturally would be produced by differences in circumstances, is one of the chief hinderances to the rational treatment of great social questions, and one of the greatest stumbling blocks to human improvement.

John Stuart Mill
Sex, Block, Character
John Stuart Mill (2009). “Autobiography of John Stuart Mill”, p.270, The Floating Press

The doctrine called Philosophical Necessity is simply this: that, given the motives which are present to an individual's mind, and given likewise the character and disposition of the individual, the manner in which he will act might be unerringly inferred: that if we knew the person thoroughly, and knew all the inducements which are acting upon him, we could foretell his conduct with as much certainty as we can predict any physical event.

John Stuart Mill
Philosophical, Character, Science
John Stuart Mill (2016). “A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive: Mill's Works”, p.852, VM eBooks

Miracles have no claim whatever to the character of historical facts and are wholly invalid as evidence of any revelation.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Miracle, Historical
John Stuart Mill (1874). “Three Essays on Religion”, p.239, New York : H. Holt

A state of things in which a large portion of the most active and inquiring intellects find it advisable to keep the genuine principles and grounds of their convictions within their own breasts, and attempt, in what they address to the public, to fit as much as they can of their own conclusions to premises which they have internally renounced, cannot send forth the open, fearless characters, and logical, consistent intellects who once adorned the thinking world.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Thinking, Fearless
John Stuart Mill (2017). “JOHN STUART MILL - Ultimate Collection: Works on Philosophy, Politics & Economy (Including Memoirs & Essays): Autobiography, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, On Liberty, Principles of Political Economy, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive and More”, p.215, Madison & Adams

The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them ... It is not so with the Distribution of Wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely. The things once there, mankind, individually or collectively, can do with them as they like.

John Stuart Mill
Truth, Character, Science
John Stuart Mill “Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical and Explanatory Notes and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy”, Library of Alexandria

All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient.

John Stuart Mill
Character, Color, Sake
John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.96, Hackett Publishing

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