James Mill Quotes

• The government and the people are under a moral necessity of acting together; a free press compels them to bend to one another.

  James Mill

  Government, People, Acting

  1811 In the Edinburgh Review, May- Aug.

  20 Copy quote

• Every man should be considered as having a right to the character which he deserves; that is, to be spoken of according to his actions.

  James Mill

  Character, Men, Action

  James Mill (1829). “Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, and Law of Nations. Written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”

  16 Copy quote

• Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exists.

  James Mill

  Men, Hands, Community

  James Mill (1821). “The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.8

  23 Copy quote

• It cannot be precisely known how any thing is good or bad, till it is precisely known what it is.

  James Mill

  Known

  James Mill (1821). “The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.24

  11 Copy quote

• Of the laws of nature, on which the condition of man depends, that which is attended with the greatest number of consequences, is the necessity of labor for obtaining the means of subsistence, as well as the means of the greatest part of our pleasure.

  James Mill

  Mean, Men, Law

  James Mill (1829). “Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, and Law of Nations. Written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.4

  9 Copy quote

• If nature had produced spontaneously all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury among men; nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring authority over another.

  James Mill

  Mean, Men, Desire

  James Mill (1821). “The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”, p.4

  12 Copy quote

• Exhortations to obstruct the operations of Government in detail, should; Exhortations to resist all.

  James Mill

  Government, Details, Should

  James Mill (1829). “Essays on Government, Jurisprudence, Liberty of the Press, and Law of Nations. Written for the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica”

  8 Copy quote

• No good government can ever want more than two things for its support: 1st, Its own excellence; and, 2dly, a people sufficiently instructed, to be aware of that excellence. Every other pretended support, must ultimately tend to its subversion, by lessening its dependence upon these.

  James Mill

  Government, Two, People

  4 Copy quote

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin