Jeremy Bentham Quotes
"Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Anarchy, Tyranny)
"The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Happiness, Truth, Measure, Right, Wrong)
"The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?""
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Question, Reason, Talk)
"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
(Related: Time, Day, Earth, Hell, Living, Will)
"The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Power, Law, Uncertainty)
"All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Evil, Punishment)
"The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Age, Knowledge, Perfection)
"Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Government, Being, Secrecy)
"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
(Related: Government, Power, Religion, Belief)
"Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Ignorance, Law, Lawyers)
"It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Community, Interest, Talk, Understanding)
"It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: People, Measure, Right, Wrong)
"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
(Related: Right, Will, Wrong)
"Every law is an infraction of liberty."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Law, Liberty)
"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
(Related: Censorship, Evil, Measure, Results)
"The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
- Jeremy Bentham
(Related: Happiness, Legislation, Morals)