Trees and Us
"Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model,
and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree
which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides,
according to the tendency of the inward forces which make
it a living thing.
Such are the differences among human beings in their
sources of pleasure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the
operation on them of different physical and moral agencies,
that unless there is a corresponding diversity in their modes
of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor
grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of
which their nature is capable."
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)
and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree
which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides,
according to the tendency of the inward forces which make
it a living thing.
Such are the differences among human beings in their
sources of pleasure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the
operation on them of different physical and moral agencies,
that unless there is a corresponding diversity in their modes
of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor
grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of
which their nature is capable."
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)
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