Jeremy Bentham
Utilitarianism founder
Sayings by Jeremy Bentham
The principle of utility, when it is applied to politics, leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
The greatest good is the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
The business of government is to promote the happiness of society.
The only good is pleasure, and the only evil is pain.
The object of all legislation is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
The only true and solid foundation of government is the general welfare of the whole community.
The greatest happiness principle is not a selfish principle.
The laws are made for the people, not the people for the laws.
The only good is that which is conducive to the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
The object of government is the happiness of the governed.
The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong.
The utility principle is the only one that can consistently justify punishment.
The only end of government is the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
The only good is the greatest good of the greatest number.
The principle of utility requires that we consider the interests of all concerned, without distinction.
The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry. If pushpin maximizes happiness for the greatest number of people—that is, if it provides more pleasure than either music or poetry—then, he reasons, it is more valuable than art.
Twenty years after I am dead, I shall be a despot, sitting in my chair with Dapple in my hand, and wearing one of the coats I wear now.
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. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it.
I shall at least be not altogether useless after my death.