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Capacity for the nobler feelings is in most natures a very tender plant, easily killed, not only by hostile influences, but by the mere want of sustenance; and in the majority of young persons it speedily dies away if the occupations to which their position in life has devoted them, and the society into which it has thrown them, are not favourable to keeping that higher capacity in existence.

— John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism (1861)

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More quotes by John Stuart Mill

One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

On Representative Government (1861)

How can great minds be produced in a country where the test of a great mind is agreeing in the opinions of small minds?

Egoists: A Book of Supermen (1909)

I deny that anyone knows, or can know, the nature of the two sexes, as long as they have only been seen in their present relation to one another.

The Subjection of Women (1869)

Whatever is known to us by consciousness, is known beyond possibility of question. What one sees or feels, whether bodily or mentally, one cannot but be sure that one sees or feels.

A System of Logic (1843)

Since the state must necessarily provide subsistence for the criminal poor while undergoing punishment, not to do the same for the poor who have not offended is to give a premium on crime.

Principles of Political Economy (1848)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Stuart Mill (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.