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The Offence Is What Is Improperly Called The Death Of An Infant, Who Has Ceased To Be, Before Knowing What Existence Is, A Result Of A Nature Not To Give The Slightest Inquietude To The Most Timid Imagination; And Which Can Cause No Regrets But To The Very Person Who, Through A Sentiment Of Shame And Pity, Has Refused To Prolong A Life Begun Under The Auspices Of Misery.

-Jeremy Bentham

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The Offence Is What

Jeremy Bentham

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The Offence Is What Is Improperly Called The Death Of An Infant, Who Has Ceased To Be, Before Knowing What Existence Is, A Result Of A Nature Not To Give The Slightest Inquietude To The Most Timid Imagination; And Which Can Cause No Regrets But To The Very Person Who, Through A Sentiment Of Shame And Pity, Has Refused To Prolong A Life Begun Under The Auspices Of Misery.

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As To The Evil Which Results From Censorship, It Is Impossible To Measure It, Because It Is Impossible To Tell Where It Ends.

The Request Of Industry To Government Is As Modest As That Of Diogenes To Alexander: Get Out Of My Light.

Want Keeps Pace With Dignity. Destitute Of The Lawful Means Of Supporting His Rank, His Dignity Presents A Motive For Malversation, And His Power Furnishes The Means.

The Word "independence" Is United To The Accessory Ideas Of Dignity And Virtue. The Word "dependence" Is United To The Ideas Of Inferiority And Corruption.

Priestly Was The First (unless It Was Becarria) Who Taught My Lips To Pronounce This Sacred Truth--that The Greatest Happiness Of The Greatest Number Is The Foundation Of Morals And Legislation.

Create All The Happiness You Are Able To Create: Remove All The Misery You Are Able To Remove. Every Day Will Allow You To Add Something To The Pleasure Of Others, Or To Diminish Something Of Their Pains. And For Every Grain Of Enjoyment You Sow In The Bosom Of Another, You Shall Find A Harvest In Your Own Bosom; While Every Sorrow Which You Pluck Out From The Thoughts And Feelings Of A Fellow Creature Shall Be Replaced By Beautiful Peace And Joy In The Sanctuary Of Your Soul.

Right... Is The Child Of Law.

No Power Of Government Ought To Be Employed In The Endeavor To Establish Any System Or Article Of Belief On The Subject Of Religion.

Kind Words Cost No More Than Unkind Ones . . . And We May Scatter The Seeds Of Courtesy And Kindliness Around Us At So Little Expense. If You Would Fall Into Any Extreme Let It Be On The Side Of Gentleness. The Human Mind Is So Constructed That It Resists Vigor And Yields To Softness.

[i]n Principle And In Practice, In A Right Track And In A Wrong One, The Rarest Of All Human Qualities Is Consistency.

A Civilized Society Must Count Animals As Worthy Of Moral Consideration And Ethical Treatment. The Question Is Not, Can They Reason? Nor Can They Talk? But, Can They Suffer?

All Poetry Is Misrepresentation.

Misrepresentation

I Don't Care Whether Animals Are Capable Of Thinking; All I Care About Is That They Are Capable Of Suffering!

Lawsuits Generally Originate With The Obstinate And The Ignorant, But They Do Not End With Them; And That Lawyer Was Right Who Left All His Money To The Support Of An Asylum For Fools And Lunatics, Saying That From Such He Got It, And To Such He Would Bequeath It.

Secrecy, Being An Instrument Of Conspiracy, Ought Never To Be The System Of A Regular Government.

Happiness Is A Very Pretty Thing To Feel, But Very Dry To Talk About.

O Logic: Born Gatekeeper To The Temple Of Science, Victim Of Capricious Destiny: Doomed Hitherto To Be The Drudge Of Pedants: Come To The Aid Of Thy Master, Legislation

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.

The Addability Of The Happiness Of Different Subjects Is A Postulum Without Which All Political Reasonings Are At A Stand

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Without Publicity, No Good Is Permanent; Under The Auspices Of Publicity, No Evil Can Continue.

Every Law Is An Infraction Of Liberty.

The Turn Of A Sentence Has Decided The Fate Of Many A Friendship, And, For Aught That We Know, The Fate Of Many A Kingdom.

Natural Rights Is Simple Nonsense: Natural And Imprescriptible Rights, Rhetorical Nonsense—nonsense Upon Stilts.

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Nature Has Placed Mankind Under The Government Of Two Sovereign Masters, Pain And Pleasure.

The Spirit Of Dogmatic Theology Poisons Anything It Touches.

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Branches Of Government

The Offence Is What Is Improperly Called The Death Of An Infant, Who Has Ceased To Be, Before Knowing What Existence Is, A Result Of A Nature Not To Give The Slightest Inquietude To The Most Timid Imagination; And Which Can Cause No Regrets But To The Very Person Who, Through A Sentiment Of Shame And Pity, Has Refused To Prolong A Life Begun Under The Auspices Of Misery.

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Publicity Is The Very Soul Of Justice. It Is The Keenest Spur To Exertion, And The Surest Of All Guards Against Improbity.

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