On Liberty

How much freedom should each person have? Individual freedom needs protection from both government coercion and the pressure of prevailing opinion. Freedom of discussion and varied ways of living support truth, judgment, and personal development, while duties to others and the prevention of harm mark limits to individual choice.

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Idea 17
Truth has no automatic power to defeat prisons, penalties, or stigma. Persecution may suppress it for centuries, while social exclusion can make dissenters conceal their convictions and deprive society of intellectual courage.
Idea 39
Restrictions may protect others’ genuine interests, as with securing a common day of rest from work imposed by others. They are not justified merely to enforce religious observance or prohibit freely chosen leisure and amusement.
Idea 40
Causing loss does not always justify interference. Fair competition inevitably disappoints some people, yet society should intervene only against methods contrary to the general interest, such as force, fraud, or treachery.

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