Thinker · 4 quotes

Jeremy Bentham quotes for UPSC

4 sourced quotes by Jeremy Bentham on ethics & morality, governance & administration, equality & social justice, power & corruption, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.

✓ Attributions checked against Wikiquote's sourced list

4 quotesAll thinkers →

Priestley was the first (unless it was Beccaria) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth — that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

— Jeremy Bentham"Extracts from Bentham's Commonplace Book", in Collected Works, x, p. 142; He credits Priestley in his Essay on the First Principles of Gove

Use itGS4: utilitarianism—greatest happiness of greatest number as basis of law and policy.

Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government.

— Jeremy BenthamOn Publicity from The Works of Jeremy Bentham volume 2, part 2 (1839)

Use itGS2/GS4 on RTI and transparency; secrecy breeds conspiracy, not good government.

Governance & Administration Integrity & HonestyGS2GS4

Ah! when will the yoke of Custom—Custom, the blind tyrant, of which all other tyrants make their slave—ah! when will that misery-perpetuating yoke be shaken off?—when, when will Reason be seated on her throne?

— Jeremy BenthamPlan of Parliamentary Reform, in the Form of a Catechism, with Reasons for Each Article: With an Introduction, Showing the Necessity of Radi

Use itEssay on social reform; blind custom as tyrant—e.g. dowry, caste, child marriage.

Equality & Social Justice Truth & WisdomEssayGS1GS4

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.

— Jeremy BenthamThe Rationale of Reward (1811)

Use itGS4: inadequate pay plus power breeds corruption—case for fair official salaries.

Power & Corruption Civil Services & Public ServiceGS2GS4