Jeremy Bentham

The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.

The business of government is to promote the happiness of the society, by punishing and rewarding.

All punishment is mischief: all punishment in itself is evil.

The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

Every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty.

The public good ought to be the object of the legislator: general utility ought to be the foundation of the laws.

The principle of utility is the only principle that can serve as a foundation for a complete and consistent system of morals and legislation.

The object of all laws is to augment the total happiness of the community.

The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.

The greatest good for the greatest number.

The community is a fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members. The interest of the community then is, what? — the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.

The principle of utility, when applied to government, means that the government should always act in such a way as to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

The only way to make a man happy is to make him believe he is happy.

The only good is pleasure, and the only evil is pain.

The greatest happiness principle is a principle of action, not a principle of belief.

The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong.

It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.

The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.