Famous Jeremy Bentham Quotations

"Every law is an infraction of liberty."

by Jeremy Bentham

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

by Jeremy Bentham

"The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?"

by Jeremy Bentham

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

by Jeremy Bentham

"The day may come when the rest of animal creation may acquire those rights which could never have been withheld from them but by the hand of tyranny...a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week or even a month old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, can they reason? Nor can they talk? But can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes."

by 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."

by Jeremy Bentham

"The schoolmaster is abroad! And I trust to him armed with his primer against the soldier in full military array."

by 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."

by Jeremy Bentham

"Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart."

by Jeremy Bentham