Problem: John Stuart Mill wrote "On Liberty" for many reasons; one being, to inform the differences between liberty and improvement. He quotes ""The spirit of improvement is not always the spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people; and the spirit of liberty, in so far as it resists such attempts, may ally itself locally and temporarily with the opponents of improvement..." (Mill 89). He goes on to explain that liberty is allowing people their rights and freedom and that improvement does not necessarily correlate to it. People cannot have liberty without the ability to have and use these rights and freedoms that we speak about, and that if not given this ability, there is no 'liberty'. He also refers to the idea of improvement, saying that without our individual liberties we cannot progress or 'improve'. Mill also explains that "the progressive principle... in, either shape, whether as the love of liberty or of improvement, is antagonistic to the sway of Custom, involving emancipation from that yoke" (Mill 89). As our world changes constantly, it is important to remember Mill's philosophy on the ideas of liberty and improvement because they are not the same. If people do not see the difference between the two, we will become more and more controlled by people in power and lose our rights and freedoms.