Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it.
—Jeremy Bentham
The principle of utility judges any action to be right by the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interests are in question… if that party be the community the happiness of the community, if a particular individual, the happiness of that individual.
—Jeremy Bentham
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
Every law is an infraction of liberty.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Lawyers, Law
He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Thought, Thoughts, Thinking
The effect of wealth in the production of happiness goes on diminishing, as the quantity by which the wealth of one man exceeds that of another goes on increasing: in other words, the quantity of happiness produced by a particle of wealth (each particle being of the same magnitude) will be less and less at every particle; the second will produce less than the first, the third than the second, and so on.
—Jeremy Bentham
The principle of asceticism never was, nor ever can be, consistently pursued by any living creature. Let but one tenth part of the inhabitants of the earth pursue it consistently, and in a day’s time they will have turned it into a Hell.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Poverty
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.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Pain, Pleasure
The word independence is united to the ideas of dignity and virtue; the word dependence, to the ideas of inferiority and corruption.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Independence
Pleasure is in itself a good; nay, even setting aside immunity from pain, the only good.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Pleasure
The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: One liners, Law, Lawyers
Judges of elegance and taste consider themselves as benefactors to the human race, whilst they are really only the interrupters of their pleasure.
—Jeremy Bentham
We may scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindness about us at little expense. Some of them will fall on good ground, and grow up into benevolence in the minds of others, and all of them will bear fruit of happiness in the bosom whence they spring.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Kindness
Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Stars
In former days superstitious rites were used to exorcise evil spirits; but in our times the same object is attained, and beyond comparison more effectually by the common newspaper. Before this talisman, ghosts, vampires, witches, and all their kindred tribes are driven from the land, never to return again. The touch of “holy water,” is not so intolerable to them as the smell of printing ink.
—Jeremy Bentham
An evil comes rarely alone. A lot of evil cannot well fall upon an individual without spreading itself about him, as about a common centre. In the course of its progress we see it take different shapes: we see evil of one kind issue from evil of another kind; evil proceed from good and good from evil. All these changes, it is important to know and to distinguish; in this, in fact, consists the essence of legislation.
—Jeremy Bentham
Tyranny and anarchy are never far asunder.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Tyranny
It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Community
All government is a trust. Every branch of government is a trust, and immemorially acknowledged to be so.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Government
Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Ignorance, Law, Lawyers
As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Censorship
The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.
—Jeremy Bentham
Topics: Goodness, Happiness
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Karl Popper Austrian-born British Philosopher
- Bertrand A. Russell British Philosopher, Mathematician
- John Rawls American Philosopher
- Zeno of Citium Greek Philosopher
- Jacques Derrida French Philosopher, Literary Theorist
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach German Philosopher
- Mencius Chinese Philosopher, Sage
- Jose Ortega y. Gasset Spanish Philosopher
- Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish Mystic, Theologian, Scientist
- John Stuart Mill English Philosopher, Economist
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