Today is the birthday of John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873), philosopher. He was a radical empiricist who held that all human knowledge, including even mathematics and logic, is derived by generalization from sensory experience. The overall aim of his philosophy was to develop a positive view of the universe and the place of humans in it, a view which would contribute to the progress of human knowledge, individual freedom and human well-being. John Stuart Mill was a strong believer in freedom, especially of speech and of thought.
"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called." - John Stuart Mill
"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
"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury." - John Stuart Mill
"No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought." - John Stuart Mill
"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next." - John Stuart Mill
"One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests." - John Stuart Mill
"Over one's mind and over one's body the individual is sovereign." - John Stuart Mill
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