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Granted that any practice causes more pain to animals than it gives pleasure to man; is that practice moral or immoral? And if, exactly in proportion as human beings raise their heads out of the slough of selfishness, they do not with one voice answer 'immoral,' let the morality of the principle of utility be for ever condemned.

— John Stuart Mill Dr. Whewell on Moral Philosophy (1852)

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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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All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away.

Mahavira

A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.

Bertrand Russell Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948)

Histories are more full of Examples of the Fidelity of dogs than of Friends.

Alexander Pope

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

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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.