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Quote by Jeremy Bentham

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The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Now First Collected: Under the Superintendence of His Executor, John Bowring ...

The Works of Jeremy Bentham is a comprehensive compilation of the intellectual contributions of Jeremy Bentham, a key figure in the development of modern philosophy and legal theory. The collection, meticulously assembled under the guidance of John Bowring, Bentham's executor, offers readers access to Bentham's extensive writings on a range of topics, including ethics, law, and the principles of social reform. The volume is significant for its historical context and its influence on subsequent philosophical and legal thought. more

Author

Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer who lived from February 15, 1748, to June 6, 1832. He is best known for his work in moral philosophy, political theory, and legal reform, particularly his advocacy for the principle of utilitarianism. more

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“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.”

“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.”

“The offence is what is improperly called the death of an infant, who has ceased to be, before knowing what existence is, a result of a nature not to give the slightest inquietude to the most timid imagination; and which can cause no regrets but to the very person who, through a sentiment of shame and pity, has refused to prolong a life begun under the auspices of misery.”

“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”

“As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human mind. They realize that, whether they like it or not, they are simply going to have to put up with what to them are excruciatingly slow mental processes, that we humans have embarrassingly low I.Q.'s, and that probably because of these defects, we have an infuriating inability to understand, let alone follow, even the simplist and most explicit of directions.”