Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.
Interpretation
Common beliefs may contain some truth, but they rarely encompass the entire reality.
In this quote, John Stuart Mill suggests that while widely held opinions about abstract or complex matters may carry an element of truth, they often lack depth and fail to capture the entirety of the situation. This statement encourages critical thinking and caution against accepting popular views without questioning their completeness.
In practice
In a debate about climate change, one might say, 'As John Stuart Mill noted, popular opinions may hold some truth, but let's examine the evidence critically.'
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
As for charity, it is a matter in which the immediate effect on the persons directly concerned, and the ultimate consequence to the general good, are apt to be at complete war with one another.
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 constitution of the government by acting on opinion, is to forget that opinion is itself one of the greatest active social forces. One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.
There should be perfect freedom, legal and social, to do the action and stand the consequences. It would be a great misunderstanding of this doctrine to suppose that it is one of selfish indifference, which pretends that human beings have no business with each other's conduct in life, and that they should not concern themselves about the well-doing or well-being of one another, unless their own interest is involved.
Political Economy, in truth, has never pretended to give advice to mankind with no lights but its own; though people who knew nothing but political economy (and therefore knew it ill) have taken upon themselves to advise, and could only do so by such lights as they had.
Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law. There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.
If we treasure our own experience and regard it as real, we must also treasure other people's experience.
Being more aware creates responsibility. What does responsibility mean? It means the ability to respond. The more conscious you are in your ability to respond, the more creative you'll be.
The present moment has always been available to spiritual seekers, but as long as you are seeking you are not available to the present moment. "Seeking" implies that you are looking to the future for some answer, or for some achievement, spiritual or otherwise. Everybody is in the seeking mode, seeking to add something to who they are, whether it be money, relationships, possessions, knowledge, status.. or spiritual attainment.
Optimistic people generally feel that good things will last a long time and will have a beneficial effect on everything they do. And they think that bad things are isolated: They won't last too long and won't affect other parts of life.
All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us.
The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.
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