An open library of thought
Protect the freedom to think and live differently.
Society may restrict a person’s conduct, by law or by the pressure of opinion, only to prevent harm to others; that person’s own good is not a sufficient warrant.
Someone about to cross a bridge known to be unsafe may be held back if there is no time to warn them; where there is only a risk, an adult should be warned rather than forcibly stopped.
Silencing an opinion wrongs everyone: it may be true, it may contain part of the truth, and even a true belief that is never challenged becomes a dead dogma rather than a living conviction.
Someone who knows only the arguments for their own position, and has never faced the strongest objections, knows little even of that position.
Pleasures differ in quality as well as quantity; those acquainted with both kinds prefer pleasures that engage the intellect, the feelings and the moral sense.
Mill writes that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied, since only the first knows both sides of the comparison.
A System of Logic sets out the methods of agreement, difference, residues and concomitant variations for identifying causal connections among observed cases.
Comparing two otherwise similar groups, only one of which received a treatment, applies the method of difference.