Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Source identified
The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.
Read & copy the quotation
“The a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.”

John Stuart Mill

Download image (JPG)

Source
The Subjection of Women
Date
1869
Meaning

Meaning of “The a priori presumption is in favour of…”

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

Source context

Where does it come from?

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.

Primary / edition source ↗

Customize your imageTen designs · Square or portrait · Preview and share
Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

DeepEqualityFreedomHumanityIndependenceMindPhilosophyShortThinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & JudgmentThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionJusticeRights
Related quotations

Continue through nearby ideas

Source identified
Society in equality is its normal state.
Read & copy

“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.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
What women by nature cannot do, it is quite superfluous to forbid them from doing.
Read & copy

“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.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.
Read & copy

“I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.”

Mary Wollstonecraft · A Vindication of the Rights of Men · 1790
Meaning & context

The line joins political rights with intellectual liberty: the argument is not merely for a different ruler but for people’s capacity to reason without inherited deference.

Source details

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government.
Read & copy

“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government.”

Thomas Paine · Rights of Man · 1791–1792
Meaning & context

Paine attributes much social conflict to institutions and inherited political systems rather than treating hostility as an unavoidable feature of human nature.

Source details

Rights of Man, Part I, Conclusion; represented from Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg #3742 collection. The passage attributes national hostility to old systems of government rather than to an inevitable enmity between people.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
The equality of married persons before the law, is not only the sole mode in which that particular relation can be made consistent with justice to both sides.
Read & copy

“The equality of married persons before the law, is not only the sole mode in which that particular relation can be made consistent with justice to both sides.”

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

Mill applies equal legal standing to marriage, arguing that a just relationship cannot rest on one adult possessing a superior legal status over the other.

Source details

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 78, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that equality of married persons before the law is required for justice to both sides and for marriage to become a school of moral cultivation rather than legal subordination.

↓ Download image (JPG)