John Stuart Mill

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.

Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized.

Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized.

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.

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society read more

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.