Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Author & topic collection

John Stuart Mill Quotes About Decision

Browse 6 quotations connecting John Stuart Mill with Decision, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

All John Stuart Mill quotesAll Decision quotesSourcesMatching quotes
Sources

Where these decision quotations appear

Sources represented here include On Liberty, Considerations on Representative Government, The Subjection of Women.

On Liberty1859 · 4 matching quotationsConsiderations on Representative Government1861 · 1 matching quotationThe Subjection of Women1869 · 1 matching quotation
6 shown
Quotations

6 matching quotations with meanings and source context

Source identified1
There is no act which more imperatively requires to be performed under a strong sense of individual responsibility than the nomination to employments.
Read & copy

“There is no act which more imperatively requires to be performed under a strong sense of individual responsibility than the nomination to employments.”

Considerations on Representative Government · 1861
Meaning & context

Mill treats appointments to public office as decisions requiring unusually strong personal accountability because poor nominations can substitute influence or convenience for actual qualification.

Source details

Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Chapter V, “Of the Proper Functions of Representative Bodies,” Project Gutenberg #5669. This is historical constitutional and administrative theory rather than a current hiring standard.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified2
He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties.
Read & copy

“He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties.”

On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Choosing for oneself exercises observation, reasoning, discrimination, and self-command in ways that passive imitation does not.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter III, in Mill’s discussion of individuality and self-directed choice.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified3
He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.
Read & copy

“He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.”

On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Mill argues that genuine individuality requires active judgment rather than automatic conformity: a person develops the faculties of choice only by deciding for reasons he has actually examined.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter III, “Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being”; Project Gutenberg #34901. The sentence follows Mill's list of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity and moral preference as faculties exercised through making a choice.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified5
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.
Read & copy

“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.”

On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

A life copied from convention leaves important human faculties unused; choosing deliberately requires observation, judgment and firmness.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter III; Mill contrasts imitation with actively choosing one’s own plan of life.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified6
The question rests with women themselves—to be decided by their own experience, and by the use of their own faculties.
Read & copy

“The question rests with women themselves—to be decided by their own experience, and by the use of their own faculties.”

The Subjection of Women · 1869
Meaning & context

Mill argues that women themselves must test capacities and choices through experience rather than having those possibilities defined in advance by others.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 48, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that questions about women’s capacities and vocations should be decided by women’s own experience and use of their faculties rather than imposed in advance by men.

↓ Download image (JPG)

More from this author

Other topic collections for John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill Quotes About Mind12 matching quotes · 3 sourcesJohn Stuart Mill Quotes About Identity10 matching quotes · 2 sourcesJohn Stuart Mill Quotes About Self Trust9 matching quotes · 2 sourcesJohn Stuart Mill Quotes About Life8 matching quotes · 3 sourcesJohn Stuart Mill Quotes About Wisdom7 matching quotes · 3 sourcesInspirational Quotes by John Stuart Mill6 matching quotes · 3 sources