Note 757 — Chapter II · : THE APOGEE AND DECLINE OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. JOHN STUART MILL

This is how Mill views it: “It is only in a very imperfect state of the world’s arrangements that anyone can best serve the happiness of others by the absolute sacrifice of his own.” (Utilitarianism, chap. 2.) But it is scarcely necessary to add, seeing that the two propositions are necessarily complementary, that one of the best ways of securing happiness is to sacrifice one’s self in the cause of others. All that is required is a little patience. “Education and opinion will so use that power as to establish in the mind of every individual an indissoluble association between his happiness and the good of the whole.” Interpreted in this way, individualism is closely akin even to the most transcendent form of solidarity.