In my opinion, if, as the result of certain combinations, Kepler’s or Newton’s discoveries could become known to people in no other way than by sacrificing the lives of one, or ten, or a hundred...

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

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...

Jeremy Bentham startled the world many years ago by stating in effect that if the amount of pleasure obtained from each be equal there is nothing to choose between poetry and push-pin. Since few people...

Many of the innovations in science and philosophy have come from unbelievers, some of whom died for their ‘unbeliefs.’ Without unbelief, we might well be living in the Dark Ages or at least in the...

[D]espite what our intuition tells us, changes in the world’s population are not generally neutral. They are either a good thing or a bad thing. But it is uncertain even what form a correct theory...

It’s a failure of national vision when you regard children as weapons, and talents as materials you can mine, assay, and fabricate for profit and defense.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.”(Frauds on the Fairies, 1853)

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse...

Settle, for sure and universally, what conduct will promote the happiness of a rational being.

Divine worship means the same thing where time is concerned, as the temple where space is concerned. “Temple” means… that a particular piece of ground is specially reserved, and marked off from the remainder of...

…the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.

In every tool we create, an idea is embedded that goes beyond the function of the thing itself.

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