"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant"
About this Quote
Mill draws a bright, almost provocatively simple line: coercion is legitimate only as a firewall, not a shepherd’s crook. The sentence is engineered to shut down a whole genre of political self-justification - the perennial claim that authorities, churches, majorities, or “public health” busybodies know what’s best for you. By insisting that “his own good, either physical or moral” is an insufficient warrant, Mill isn’t being soft on self-destruction; he’s indicting paternalism as a power grab dressed up as concern.
The intent is surgical. Mill wants to protect individual experiments in living from the twin threats of the 19th century: the expanding administrative state and the social tyranny of respectable opinion. In Victorian Britain, “civilized community” signals a society that congratulates itself on progress - which is exactly why the warning lands. Civilization doesn’t immunize a culture from coercion; it refines the rhetoric used to apply it.
The subtext is that moral certainty is politically dangerous. Once the state can compel you “for your own good,” every dominant norm gets a badge and a baton. Mill’s “harm to others” standard tries to force public arguments onto observable injuries rather than disputed virtues, turning moral disagreement into something that can’t automatically be policed.
Rhetorically, the quote works because it anticipates the reader’s rationalizations. It doesn’t deny that people make bad choices; it denies everyone else the right to convert that fact into control. It’s liberalism as an anti-pretext machine: less a celebration of autonomy than a refusal to let power call itself benevolence.
The intent is surgical. Mill wants to protect individual experiments in living from the twin threats of the 19th century: the expanding administrative state and the social tyranny of respectable opinion. In Victorian Britain, “civilized community” signals a society that congratulates itself on progress - which is exactly why the warning lands. Civilization doesn’t immunize a culture from coercion; it refines the rhetoric used to apply it.
The subtext is that moral certainty is politically dangerous. Once the state can compel you “for your own good,” every dominant norm gets a badge and a baton. Mill’s “harm to others” standard tries to force public arguments onto observable injuries rather than disputed virtues, turning moral disagreement into something that can’t automatically be policed.
Rhetorically, the quote works because it anticipates the reader’s rationalizations. It doesn’t deny that people make bad choices; it denies everyone else the right to convert that fact into control. It’s liberalism as an anti-pretext machine: less a celebration of autonomy than a refusal to let power call itself benevolence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
|---|---|
| Source | John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859), Chapter 1 — statement of the "harm principle" (passage beginning "The only purpose for which power..."). |
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