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If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
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“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

John Stuart Mill

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Source
On Liberty
Date
1859
Meaning

Meaning of “If all mankind minus one, were of one…”

Mill makes the number of people holding an opinion irrelevant to their right to silence dissent: minority speech remains worth protecting even when nearly everyone else believes it wrong.

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Where does it come from?

On Liberty, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #34901. Mill’s next argument is epistemic as well as political: suppressing an opinion can deprive everyone of truth or of the clearer understanding created when truth is tested against error.

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DeepFreedomMindPhilosophyThinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & JudgmentThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionToleranceTruthBeliefDemocracyJusticeOpinionPoliticsRightsSilence
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Faith, therefore, allows the greatest latitude in philosophic speculation, allowing us without blame to think what we like about anything.
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“Faith, therefore, allows the greatest latitude in philosophic speculation, allowing us without blame to think what we like about anything.”

Benedict de Spinoza · A Theologico-Political Treatise — Part III · 1670
Meaning & context

Spinoza separates faithful conduct from enforced uniformity of speculation: people can differ widely in philosophical belief while still being judged by whether their teaching leads toward justice and charity rather than hatred.

Source details

A Theologico-Political Treatise — Part III, Chapter XIV, paragraph 77, Project Gutenberg #991. The frozen catalog preserves the opening of Spinoza’s longer sentence; the paragraph continues by condemning teachings tending toward obstinacy, hatred, strife and anger and praising justice and charity. This is seventeenth-century theological / political philosophy, not a modern empirical claim.

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Society in equality is its normal state.
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“Society in equality is its normal state.”

John Stuart Mill · The Subjection of Women · 1869
Meaning & context

Mill contrasts relations organized around command and obedience with equal association, presenting equality as the normal direction of an improving society.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 79, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill contrasts command-and-obedience relations with equal association and states that society in equality is the normal state toward which improving social relations should move.

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The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.
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“The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.”

John Stuart Mill · The Subjection of Women · 1869
Meaning & context

Mill places the burden of proof on restrictions and unequal privilege rather than treating inherited inequality as self-justifying.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 3, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill places the burden of proof on restrictions and unequal privilege, stating that the a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.

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Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
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“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”

Friedrich Nietzsche · Human, All-Too-Human · 1909
Meaning & context

Nietzsche warns that fixed certainty can block revision more effectively than an obvious falsehood because conviction can make contrary evidence harder to examine.

Source details

Human, All-Too-Human, Part I, aphorism 483, “The Enemies of Truth”; Helen Zimmern translation, 1909 edition.

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Opinion appears to you to be darker than knowledge, but lighter than ignorance?
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“Opinion appears to you to be darker than knowledge, but lighter than ignorance?”

Plato · The Republic · 4th century BCE
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning & context

Opinion is treated as an intermediate state: it is not complete ignorance, but it also lacks the clarity and stability of knowledge.

Source details

The Republic, Book V; Socrates places opinion between knowledge and ignorance in the argument about what each apprehends.

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What women by nature cannot do, it is quite superfluous to forbid them from doing.
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“What women by nature cannot do, it is quite superfluous to forbid them from doing.”

John Stuart Mill · The Subjection of Women · 1869
Meaning & context

The argument exposes a contradiction in claims about natural incapacity: if an activity were truly impossible by nature, legal prohibition would be unnecessary.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 48, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that if an activity were truly contrary to women’s nature, legal or social prohibition would be superfluous; the sentence belongs to his case for free development and open competition.

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