The quote above originates from a chapter in which Mills is clarifying why it is ideal to have options, and to be more astute of those options, than it is to have less options and experience life without thinking about these decisions. For the sake of simplicity, Mills looks at Socrates and fools, then people and pigs; the latter both being "lower." He contends that no human could ever desire to be a pig only for the ease of the pig's life. Human beings deal with complications in our lives unknown to pigs, yet Mill can't even fathom somebody needing to surrender their human life only for the comfort of a pigs life. I tend to look at the inverse of this theory that perhaps the “higher” creature would be more disappointed when disappointed, knowing
