The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow it but to amend it.

During his time as an MP Mill advocated easing the burdens on Ireland. In 1866 Mill became the first person in the history of Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote vigorously defending this position in subsequent debate. And as most opinions are neither completely true nor completely false he points out that allowing free expression allows the airing of competing views as a way to preserve partial truth in various opinions.

He was a proponent of utilitarianism an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham. Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.