It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.
John Stuart MillThe liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.
John Stuart MillMy father never permitted anything which I learnt to degenerate into a mere exercise of memory. He strove to make the understanding not only go along with every step of the teaching but...precede it.
John Stuart MillEvery established fact which is too bad to admit of any other defence is always presented to us as an injunction of religion.
John Stuart MillMen might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.
John Stuart MillChristian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction.... In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character.... It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established.
John Stuart Mill