Jeremy Bentham

The sole object of government ought to be the greatest happiness of the greatest possible number of the community.

The legislator is not to command, but to advise.

Secrecy, being a weapon of injustice, is never to be endured.

The dead hand of the past.

The power of the crown is the power of the people.

The more closely a man is confined, the more he is an object of compassion.

The world is governed by words.

Every man is the best judge of his own utility.

The principle of utility is capable of neither proof nor disproof.

The greatest happiness principle requires that we maximize pleasure and minimize pain for the greatest number of people.

The good of the community cannot be pursued but through the good of its members.

The human mind is a machine for happiness.

The legislator should direct his attention to the prevention of crimes, rather than to their punishment.

The only source of valid law is the will of the sovereign.

The principle of utility, or, as it is also called, the greatest happiness or greatest felicity principle, states that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

The value of a pleasure or pain considered by itself, will be greater or less, according to six circumstances: 1. Its intensity. 2. Its duration. 3. Its certainty or uncertainty. 4. Its propinquity or remoteness. 5. Its fecundity. 6. Its purity.

The only limit to the power of the legislator is the limit of practicability.

All property is founded on expectation.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of government.

The greatest happiness principle is a principle of benevolence.