John Stuart Mill

The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349 It is of no use to say that Christ, read more

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349 It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been super-added by the tradition of his followers. Who among his disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings of Jesus or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee; as certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort; still less the early Christian writers, in whom nothing is more evident than that the good which was in them was all derived, as they always professed that it was derived, from the higher source.

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if read more

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.

A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy read more

A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.