Old Philosophy...Not So Dry and Boring

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." - J.S Mill

To me, this quotation means that violence is only accepted when it protects others from harm. For example if a person is threatening a child with a knife and you have a gun, it is accepted to hurt that person in order to prevent any harm done to the child.

In researching this quotation I discovered that it was said by a very famous British philosopher, John Stuart Mill. This quotation was part of an essay he wrote explaining the Harm Principal. This principal holds "that the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals." This quote is an excerpt from the philosophical work, On Liberty, which was written in 1859 and it was a very radical work to the traditional Victorian readers of the time "because it supported individuals' moral and economic freedom from the state."  During the Romantic Era the people were rebelling against the traditional political values and discovering liberation politics.