"Men have an all but incurable propensity to try to prejudge all the great questions which interest them by stamping their prejudices upon their language. Law, in many cases, means not only a command, but a beneficent command. Liberty means not the bare absence of restraint, but the absence of injurious restraint. Justice means not mere impartiality in applying general rules to particular cases, but impartiality in applying beneficent general rules to particular cases. Some people half consciously use the word "true" as meaning useful as well as true. Of course language can never be made absolutely neutral and colourless; but unless its ambiguities are understood, accuracy of thought is impossible, and the injury done is proportionate to the logical force and general vigour of character of those who are misled."
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Philosophers from EnglandNon-fiction authors from EnglandLawyers from EnglandPeople from LondonJudges from England
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Ch. 4
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James Fitzjames Stephen
Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (March 3, 1829 – March 11, 1894) was an English lawyer and judge, created 1st Baronet Stephen by Queen Victoria. Through his rebuttal of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, titled Liberty, Equality, Fraternity he established himself as a conservative philosopher.
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