Jeremy Bentham Philosophy Quotes & Sayings

Is it possible for a man to move the earth? Yes; but he must first find out another earth to stand upon. — Jeremy Bentham

The rarest of all human qualities is consistency. — 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

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 lawyer have framed or made in part this instrument. — Jeremy Bentham

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