62 Enlightening Quotes By Jeremy Bentham For A Better World
Regarded as the founding father of modern Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham was a prominent English reformer, jurist and philosopher. Bentham was also an advocate of modern liberalism and legal positivism. His main areas of interest comprised of political philosophy, philosophy of law, ethics and economics. Bentham was heavily influenced by the radical ideas of development of welfarism. Therefore, he propagated for freedom of expression, equal rights for women, individual and economic freedom, abolition of slavery, abolition of capital punishment, the right to divorce, decriminalization of homosexual acts and animal rights. Bentham’s disciples, including James Mill, John Austin and Robert Owen, were founders of the modern utopian socialism. He is also tagged as the “spiritual founder” of the University College of London due to his support for general availability of education for all. Bentham is also well-known for his ‘greatest happiness principle’, which states that ‘it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong’. Being a great thinker, philosopher and theorist, he expressed his views on several subjects across politics, society, legal system and economics. We have curated his quotes and sayings from his great works, speeches, and observations. Here is a collection of some of the greatest quotes from this extraordinary social reformer from 18th century England.
The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but "Can they suffer?
...the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.
Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.
Happiness is a very pretty thing to feel, but very dry to talk about.
Is it possible for a man to move the earth? Yes; but he must first find out another earth to stand upon.
No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavor to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.
Every law is an infraction of liberty.
Reputation is the road to power
Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.
The question is not can they reason nor can they talk but can they suffer?
Nonsense on stilts
The quantity of pleasure being equal, push-pin is as good as poetry.
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.
If Christianity needed an Anti-Christ, they needed look no farther than Paul.
It is with government as with medicine, its only business is the choice of evils. Every law is an evil, for every law is an infraction of liberty.
Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.
Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove.
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.
All poetry is misrepresentation.
A civilized society must count animals as worthy of moral consideration and ethical treatment. The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
All government is a trust. Every branch of government is a trust, and immemorially acknowledged to be so.
Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.
All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil.
The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection.
Happy life and merciful death
O Logic: born gatekeeper to the Temple of Science, victim of capricious destiny: doomed hitherto to be the drudge of pedants: come to the aid of thy master, Legislation
The request of industry to government is as modest as that of Diogenes to Alexander: Get out of my light.
Want keeps pace with dignity. Destitute of the lawful means of supporting his rank, his dignity presents a motive for malversation, and his power furnishes the means.
Those physical difficulties which you cannot account for, be very slow to arraign; for he that would be wiser than Nature would be wiser than God.
Right... is the child of law.
