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.”

“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.”

“Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.”

“As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends.”

“All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.”

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

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

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

“...the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.”

“Every law is an infraction of liberty.”

“. . . in no instance has a system in regard to religion been ever established, but for the purpose, as well as with the effect of its being made an instrument of intimidation, corruption, and delusion, for the support of depredation and oppression in the hands of governments.”

“No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavor to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.”

“Happiness is a very pretty thing to feel, but very dry to talk about.”

“The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.”

“It is vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual.”