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Brief Lives

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Alistair MacFarlane looks at a man who applied his thought to his life.

Mill and the concept of liberty are forever linked, but his tyrannical father sought to deprive him of it. In later life, when asked if he had ever played cricket, he replied wistfully that he never had a childhood, had no friends of his own age, and had never been allowed time for frivolous things. The lonely boy was made into a prodigy, and as a result grew up to view society in largely abstract terms. Later events dramatically converted him into a powerful advocate for radical social change.

John Stuart Mill by George Frederick Watts 1873

Early Life

John Stuart Mill was born on 20 May 1806 in Pentonville, a suburb of London.

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