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.

Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit.

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan fo ...

If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind.

Indeed the dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into common places, but whic ...

Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.

No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.

No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more even by ...

Over one's mind and over one's body the individual is sovereign.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to ob ...