“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.”

“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.”

“Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain.”

“All action is for the sake of some end; and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient.”

“All desirable things... are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as a means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain.”

“All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.”

“All political revolutions, not affected by foreign conquest, originate in moral revolutions. The subversion of established institutions is merely one consequence of the previous subversion of established opinions.”

“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.”

“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.”

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.”

“I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.”

“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

“It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being.”

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

“Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.”

“Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends.”

“Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.”

“The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.”

“The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow it but to amend it.”

“The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.”

“The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.”

“The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.”

“There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.”

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.”

“Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.”