Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllGovernmentPleasureLawPainIfsLawyerSufferingUtilityAnimalEvilUtilitarianismAnimal RightsHappinessHumansLinesMiseryReasonAbleAnimal EthicsAtheism

Famous Jeremy Bentham Quotes

“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. In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality he will remain subject to it all the while. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law. Systems which attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light.”

ReasonPhilosophyPainHappinessNaturePleasureMoralityEthicsUtilityMoral PhilosophyUtilitarianismPhilosophy Of Ethics
Book:The Principles of Morals and Legislation
Create image

“Judges of elegance and taste consider themselves as benefactors to the human race, whilst they are really only the interrupters of their pleasure ... There is no taste which deserves the epithet good, unless it be the taste for such employments which, to the pleasure actually produced by them, conjoin some contingent or future utility: there is no taste which deserves to be characterized as bad, unless it be a taste for some occupation which has mischievous tendency.”

HumansPleasureRaceJudgingTasteDeserveTendenciesEmploymentHuman RaceOccupationEleganceUtilityMischievousBenefactorsEpithet
Book:The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected: Under the Superintendence of His Executor, John Bowring ...
Create image

“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.”

SoulFeelingsAblePainBeautifulJoyPleasureSorrowCreaturesFellowsAddMiseryYour SoulEnjoymentRemoveGrainReplacedHarvestDiminishBosomsSanctuaryThoughts And FeelingsPluckPeace And Joy
Author:Jeremy Bentham
Create image

“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”

IfsPainEvilIndividualCommunityPleasurePartyCasesObjectsProduceParticularBenefitsHappeningsAdvantagePropertyUnhappinessUtilityMischief
Book:The Principles of Morals and Legislation
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingTwoGovernmentPainPleasureEffortMankindMastersSovereignUtilityPain And PleasureSubjectionUtilitarianUtilitarianismPain Pleasure
Book:The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected: Under the Superintendence of His Executor, John Bowring ...
Create image