Men’s opinions on what is praiseworthy or blameworthy are subject to all the various causes that influence their feelings towards others; causes which are as numerous as those which determine their desires for anything else. Sometimes men are influenced by their reason, sometimes by their prejudices or superstitions, often by their social feelings, not infrequently by their antisocial ones, their envy or jealousy, their arrogance or contempt; but more commonly men are influenced by expectations or fears for themselves – in their legitimate or illegitimate personal interest.

 

Intolerance is so ingrained in men in all that actually matters to them, that religious freedom has almost nowhere been practically realized, except where religious indifference, which does not like to see its peace disturbed by theological controversies, has thrown its weight into the balance.

 

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. Every individual is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Humanity gains more by tolerating that each live as seems good to him, than by compelling him to live as seems good to others.

 

Men are not infallible; their truths are mostly half-truths; uniformity of opinion is not desirable unless it represents the result of the most complete and free comparison of opposed opinions; diversity is not an evil, but a good, as long as men are not able to recognize all aspects of truth. As long as men are imperfect, it is useful that there are different opinions and experiments in life, that different characters are left free to express themselves provided they do not harm others.

 

Individuality is one of the principal ingredients of human happiness, precisely the main ingredient of personal and social progress. Human faculties such as perception, judgment, discerning capacity, mental activity, and even moral preferences, are exercised only in choices. Those who do anything purely out of custom make no choice and learn nothing about discerning or desiring what is best. Mental and moral energies, like muscular forces, develop only through use. Human nature is not a machine to be built upon a model and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree which needs to grow and develop in every direction according to the tendencies of the inward forces that make it a living being.

 

Desires and impulses, however, are as much a part of a true human being as are beliefs and conditionings; and strong impulses are dangerous only when not properly balanced. It is not for their strong passions that men act wrongly, but because their consciences are weak.

 

Originality is a precious element in men’s lives. There is always a need for original individuals, not only to discover new truths and to reveal that those which were once truths are no longer so, but also to initiate new forms of conduct and to set examples of more enlightened and tasteful behavior in human life.

 

These few individuals are the salt of the earth; without them human life would become a stagnant marsh. If there were nothing new to be done, would human intellect cease to be necessary? Would it be a good reason to forget why things have been done for a long time and act like beasts rather than human beings?

 

J.S. Mill