5 Quotes by John Stuart Mill about happiness

  • Author John Stuart Mill
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    The happiness which they (the philosophers) meant was not a life of rapture; but moments of such, in an existence made up of few and transitory pains, many and various pleasures, with a decided predominance of the active over the passive, and having as the foundation of the whole, not to expect more from life than it is capable of bestowing. A life thus composed, to those who have been fortunate enough to obtain it, has always appeared worthy of the name of happiness.

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  • Author John Stuart Mill
  • Quote

    [The utilitarian standard] is not the agent's own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether; and if it may possibly be doubted whether a noble character is always the happier for its nobleness, there can be no doubt that it makes other people happier, and that the world in general is immensely a gainer by it.

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  • Author John Stuart Mill
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    Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.

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  • Author John Stuart Mill
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    Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind.

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