John Stuart Mill Quotes About Politics

Quotes about: Politics

• A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

  John Stuart Mill

  Freedom, War, Military

• A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes--will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

  John Stuart Mill

  Men, Hands, Order

  'On Liberty' (1859) ch. 5

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

  John Stuart Mill

  Life, Party, Order

  'On Liberty' (1859) ch. 2

• The industrial economy which divides society absolutely into two portions, the payers of wages and the receivers of them, the first counted by thousands and the last by millions, is neither fit for, nor capable of, indefinite duration: and the possibility of changing this system for one of combination without dependence, and unity of interest instead of organized hostility, depends altogether upon the future developments of the Partnership principle.

  John Stuart Mill

  Wisdom, Two, Unity

  John Stuart Mill (1848). “Principles of Political Economy with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy”, p.466

• A democratic constitution, not supported by democratic institutions in detail, but confined to the central government, not only is not political freedom, but often creates a spirit precisely the reverse, carrying down to the lowest grade in society the desire and ambition of political domination.

  John Stuart Mill

  Ambition, Government, Political

  John Stuart Mill (1848). “Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy”, p.523

• In proportion as the people are accustomed to manage their affairs by their own active intervention, instead of leaving them to the government, their desires will turn to repelling tyranny, rather than to tyrannizing: while in proportion as all ready initiative and direction resides in the government, and individuals habitually feel and act as under its perpetual tutelage, popular institutions develop in them not the desire of freedom, but an unmeasured appetite for place and power.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, People, Leaving

• A people among whom there is no habit of spontaneous action for a collective interest - who look habitually to their government to command or prompt them in all matters of joint concern - who expect to have everything done for them, except what can be made an affair of mere habit and routine - have their faculties only half developed; their education is defective in one of its most important branches.

  John Stuart Mill

  Wisdom, Government, People

  John Stuart Mill (1849). “Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy : in Two Volumes”, p.516

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