An active and energetic mind, if denied liberty, will seek for power: refused the command of itself, it will assert its personality by attempting to control others. To allow to any human beings no existence of their own but what depends on others, is giving far too high a premium on bending others to their purposes. Where liberty cannot be hoped for, and power can, power becomes the grand object of human desire; those to whom others will not leave the undisturbed management of their own affairs, will compensate themselves, if they can, by meddling for their own purposes with the affairs of others. ( )

Disappointing in that he fails so superbly at the reality behind why women are not more visible in all the arts and professions. It is not ability or talent or industry or effort or attempts...is it systematic blockage at every turn by rules, customs, religion, laws and men in general. Still, it should be required reading in schools with someone critical of every point that is contrary to reality. ( )

This is a powerful example of not letting society determine your opinions.

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Do not forget that common sense is often vicious.

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Even expecting many of the arguments, I was still surprised by what I learned.

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There is, of course, a difference between power and freedom.

If it were not for archaic words such as "burthen" (burden) and "rainment (clothing)"; the necessity to counteract arguments from phrenology; and the use of the figurative "Mrs Grundy" (an archaic Mrs Bucket); one might be reading a contemporary argument for diversity and greater opportunities for women. Mill exerts his authority by challenging then-dominant ideas (such as phrenology and assumptions about biology then-untested) and then reconciles this absurdity for the modern reader by suggesting that while such things are unknown, and he has little time for these, he can still argue away their objections to his central thesis. Mill was far ahead of his time and his arguments took some time to materialise in universal suffrage and equality of opportunity for women, but the central message, then radical, is now part of political discourse. I intend to focus on James Fitzjames Stephen now to see how Stephen deals with Mill's authoritative works on liberty. ( )

I need to reread this someday. But for now, a quote: "What is now called the nature of women is an eminently artificial thing — the result of forced repression in some directions, unnatural stimulation in others....in the case of women, a hot-house and stove cultivation has always been carried on of some of the capabilities of their nature, for the benefit and pleasure of their masters. Then, because certain products of the general vital force sprout luxuriantly and reach a great development in this heated atmosphere and under this active nurture and watering, while other shoots from the same root, which are left outside in the wintry air, with ice purposely heaped all round them, have a stunted growth, and some are burnt off with fire and disappear; men, with that inability to recognize their own work which distinguishes the unanalytic mind, indolently believe that the tree grows of itself in the way they have made it grow, and that it would die if one half of it were not kept in a vapour bath and the other half in the snow."
Full text can be found here: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/mill/john_stuart/m645s/chapter1.html ( )