Jeremy Bentham

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.

Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, --will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, --or to diminish something of their pains.

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.

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.

It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.

Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.

Without publicity, no good is permanent; under the auspices of publicity, no evil can continue.

The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

The question is not, 'Can they reason?' nor, 'Can they talk?' but rather, 'Can they suffer?'

Pleasure is in itself a good; nay, even setting aside immunity from pain, the only good.

I don't care whether animals are capable of thinking; all I care about is that they are capable of suffering!

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

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.

What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?