On Liberty

So often when people look back at history they think to themselves how much more progressive (ie. better) they are than their ancestors.  Well, apparently our ancestors had that perspective as well.

"What these rules should be is the principal question in human affairs..Not two ages, and scarcely any two countries, have decided it alike; and the decision of one age or country is a wonder to another. Yet the people of any given age and country no more suspect any difficulty in it than if it were a subject on which mankind had always been agreed.  The rules which obtain among themselves appear to them self-evident and self-justifying. This all but universal illusion is one the examples of the magical influence of custom."

-   J.S. Mill

Source:   J.S. Mill, On Liberty. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., (1859), 1978, p.5.