Jeremy Bentham Quotes

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• The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Happiness, Numbers, Truth Is

  A Fragment on Government preface (1776). Bentham said that he derived this formula from either Joseph Priestley or Cesare Beccaria; Beccaria is the more likely. If Priestley was the source, then Bentham was paraphrasing him because the phrase is not found in Priestley's writings. See Beccaria 1; Hutcheson 1

  156 Copy quote

• Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Able, Misery, Pluck

  155 Copy quote

• Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Beautiful, Pain, Joy

  "Will this man make you happy?" by Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. June 24, 2008.

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• Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Stars, Flower, Men

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• It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual

  Jeremy Bentham

  Community, Understanding, Individual

  John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.9, Hackett Publishing

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• I don't care whether animals are capable of thinking; all I care about is that they are capable of suffering!

  Jeremy Bentham

  Animal, Thinking, Suffering

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• Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure... 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.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Thinking, Government

  Jeremy Bentham (1838). “The works of Jeremy Bentham, now first collected: under the superintendence of his executor, John Bowring ...”, p.1

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• The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Law, Attorney, Uncertainty

  Jeremy Bentham, John Bowring (1842). “The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected”, p.429

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• Every law is an infraction of liberty.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Funny, Humor, Law

  1789 An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.

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• 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.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Animal, Rights, Hands

  An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation ch. 17 (1789)

  106 Copy quote

• Kind words cost no more than unkind ones . . . and we may scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindliness around us at so little expense. If you would fall into any extreme let it be on the side of gentleness. The human mind is so constructed that it resists vigor and yields to softness.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Fall, Yield, Mind

  31 Copy quote

• Lawyers sometimes tell the truth. They'll do anything to win a case.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Winning, Lawyer, Sometimes

  50 Copy quote

• By utility is meant that property is any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness(all this in the present case come to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil or unhappiness to the party who whose is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community; if a particular individual; then the happiness of that individual

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Party, Evil

  Jeremy Bentham (1879). “The Principles of Morals and Legislation”

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• Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Government, Two

  An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation ch. 1 (1789)

  66 Copy quote

• Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Simple, Rights, Nonsense

  Anarchical Fallacies art. 2 (1816)

  54 Copy quote

• ...the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Consistency, Quality, Utilitarianism

  John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.11, Hackett Publishing

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• Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Tyrants, Anarchy, Tyranny

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• There is no pestilence in a state like a zeal for religion, independent of morality.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Independent, Atheism, Pestilence

  Jeremy Bentham (1842). “The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected: Under the Superintendence of His Executor, John Bowring ...”, p.70

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• Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, --will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, --or to diminish something of their pains.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Pain, Add, Able

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• As to the evil which results from censorship, it is impossible to measure it, because it is impossible to tell where it ends.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Evil, Impossible, Censorship

  Jeremy Bentham, Etienne Dumont (1840). “Theory of Legislation”, p.152

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• What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Dog, Horse, Animal

  Jeremy Bentham (2012). “An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation”, p.311, Courier Corporation

  78 Copy quote

• Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Government, Political, Politics

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• If Christianity needed an Anti-Christ, they needed look no farther than Paul.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Historical, Looks, Christianity

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• Happiness is a very pretty thing to feel, but very dry to talk about.

  Jeremy Bentham

  Happiness, Dry, Pretty Things

  Jeremy Bentham (1838). “The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected: Under the Superintendence of His Executor, John Bowring ...”, p.64

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• How is property given? By restraining liberty; that is, by taking it away so far as necessary for the purpose. How is your house made yours? By debarring every one else from the liberty of entering it without your leave.

  Jeremy Bentham

  House, Liberty, Purpose

  Jeremy Bentham (1844). “Benthamiana: Or Select Extracts from the Works of Jeremy Bentham. With an Outline of His Opinions on the Principal Subjects Discussed in His Works”, p.95

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