Liberty and Book Quotes
“The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of it it reappearance falls on a time when favourable circumstances it escapes persecution until it has made such head as to withstand all subsequent attempts to suppress it. ”
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
“Who can compute what the world loses in the multitude of promising intellects combined with timid characters, who dare no follow out any bold, vigorous, independent train of thought, lest it should land them in something which would admit of being considered irreligious or immoral?”
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
“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 errors of one who, with due study and preparation thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only holds them because they do not suffer themselves to think.”
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
I especially like the middle one. It took me a while to get these up to the Book Quotes and Passages Section, so I don’t remember much about the book, other than that it was pretty dense. One really interesting assertion he makes in it is that while Marcus Aurelius persecuted thousands of Christians, he was at the same time, unknowingly one of its most pious followers. And that had he realized this, and made it the official religion of Rome (instead of making way for Constantine to do it much later), the world would have been introduced to a dramatically less violent and vindictive version of the faith. This of course would have altered the course of the thought in an unquantifiable way. In fact, he calls this one of the most tragic ironies of history. And he discussions on why dissent is valuable and the danger of suppression are especially relevant in an era that combines the insulation of the Bush Administration and the stupidity of Political Correctness.
Rather than read it, I’d just scroll through the WikiQuote version, you get about the same.
