John Stuart Mill identifies the subject of On Liberty as “Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.” On Liberty is therefore concerned with the juridico-political relationship between self and society; that is, it is an attempt to define the legitimate exercise of both state and social power over an apparently already-constituted “individual.” In my dissertation, however, I argue that Mill is equally concerned with the aesthetic relationship that one may have with oneself. Thus, I argue that On Liberty can also be read as an “aesthetic manual” which urges its readers to cultivate their characters in particular ways in order to become “individuals.” This interpretation of Mill reveals a certain affiliation between politics and aesthetics which tends to be neglected by traditional, juridico-political accounts of liberalism; it thus offers an enriched and more complete conception of the liberal-democratic “individual.”