Quotes by Jeremy Bentham

About Jeremy Bentham:

Jeremy Bentham is regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavor to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.

Jeremy Bentham

. . . in no instance has a system in regard to religion been ever established, but for the purpose, as well as with the effect of its being made an instrument of intimidation, corruption, and delusion, for the support of depredation and oppression in...

Jeremy Bentham

The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection.

Jeremy Bentham

If a man happen to take it into his head to assassinate with his own hands, or with the sword of justice, those whom he calls heretics, that is, people who think, or perhaps only speak, differently upon a subject which neither party understands, he w...

Jeremy Bentham

The day may come when the rest of animal creation 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 shoul...

Jeremy Bentham

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...

Jeremy Bentham

In the mind of all, fiction, in the logical sense, has been the coin of necessity;—in that of poets of amusement—in that of the priest and the lawyer of mischievous immorality in the shape of mischievous ambition,—and too often both priest and ...

Jeremy Bentham

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

Jeremy Bentham

Bodies are real entities. Surfaces and lines are but fictitious entities. A surface without depth, a line without thickness, was never seen by any man; no; nor can any conception be seriously formed of its existence.

Jeremy Bentham

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

Jeremy Bentham

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

Jeremy Bentham

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

Jeremy Bentham

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

Jeremy Bentham

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.

Jeremy Bentham

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

Jeremy Bentham

Every law is an infraction of liberty.

Jeremy Bentham

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

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

Jeremy Bentham

Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.

Jeremy Bentham

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

Author Bio

  • NameJeremy Bentham
  • DescriptionBritish philosopher, jurist, and social reformer
  • AliasesGamaliel Smith
  • BornFebruary 15, 1748
  • DiedJune 6, 1832
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Writer; Economist