The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.
John Stuart Mill Quotes
Every great social movement has three stages: Ridicule, discussion, adoption.
The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete skeptics in religion.
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be in silencing mankind.
Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.
All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
It is as certain that many opinions, now general, will be rejected by future ages, as it is that many, once general, are rejected by the present.
If the natural course of things were perfectly right and satisfactory, to act at all would be a gratuitous meddling, which, as it could not make things better, must make them worse. Or if action at all could be justified, it would only be when in direct obedience to instincts, since these might perhaps be […]
The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something peculiarly […]
A man’s interest consists of whatever he takes interest in… he is a good man or a bad, according as he prefers one class of his interests or another.
