All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil.
Jeremy Bentham

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

Every law is an infraction of liberty.
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.
Jeremy Bentham

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

It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual.
Jeremy Bentham

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.
Jeremy Bentham

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

Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.
Jeremy Bentham

Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.
Jeremy Bentham


The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection.
Jeremy Bentham

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

The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.
Jeremy Bentham

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

The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?"
Jeremy Bentham

The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.
Jeremy Bentham

Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.
Jeremy Bentham