It's the "John Stuart Mill clever quote" thread

[Montauk6]

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

Now to honor the "fairness doctrine" of quotables, here's a JSM the freepers can suckle on.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

Of course, I have a gut feeling Mr. Mill would've looked at Iraq and said, "Damn!!... aw man... OK, well... you got me on that one; let me get back to you..."

[Benfea]

1. I think I should point out...

…that "liberal" and "conservative" mean completely different things depending on what part of the world or what point in history you're talking about. Heck, even in the modern world, there are parts of Latin America and Europe where "liberal" and "conservative" mean the opposite of what they do in America.

People always forget that.

I am not knowledgeable about political history in Great Britain of the 1800s, but for all we know, mister Mill was using "liberal" and "conservative" in a completely different context from how modern Americans use the terms.

[tjwmason]

2. He was.

Indeed most American conservatives acknowledge that their form of conservatism is essentially classical liberalism. That certainly doesn't mean that were J.S.M. around today he would be in support of the Pubbies though.

[Montauk6]

3. Yeah, BUT...

Notice how conservative seldom align themselves with classical conservatism? Heck look at how many try to "claim" JFK and even MLK (!!!) as one of their own.

[Heidi]

4. My favorite JSM quote:

"If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind."