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The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

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The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.

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No one but a fool, and only a fool of a peculiar description, feels offended by the acknowledgment that there are others whose opinion, and even whose...more

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To think that because those who wield power in society wield in the end that of government, therefore it is of no use to attempt to influence the cons...more

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[T]he source of everything respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being namely, that his errors are corrigible.

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First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibi...more

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We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

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In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of op...more

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If there are any persons who contest a received opinion,or who will do so if law or opinion will let them, let us thankthem for it, open our minds to ...more

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Stupidity is much the same all the world over. A stupid person's notions and feelings may confidently be inferred from those which prevail in the circ...more