Sara Pascoe Quotes

It is the greatest good to the greatest number which is the measure of right and wrong.

That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

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.

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

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

The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

I'm a Utilitarian, so I don't see the rule against lying as absolute; it's always subject to some overriding utility which may prevent its exercise.

To be a utilitarian means that you judge actions as right or wrong in accordance with whether they have good consequences. So you try to do what will have the best consequences for all of those affected.

If the end does not justify the means - what can?

It seems that if you put people on paper and move them through time, you cannot help but talk about ethics, because the ethical realm exists nowhere if not here: in the consequences of human actions as they unfold in time, and the multiple interpretive possibility of those actions.

The ideologue says “whatever is right works.” The pragmatist says “whatever works is right.”

We ought to see clearly that the end does justify the means

When the common good of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals.

If the ends don't justify the means, what does?

A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula (of the greatest good of the greatest number). He will strive for the greatest good of all and die in the attempt to realize that ideal.

I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.

Does the end justify the means? That is possible. But what will justify the end? To that question, which historical thought leaves pending, rebellion replies: the means.

The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality.

Before being free, it is necessary to be just

I hate injustice, I despise inequity, I condemn hypocrisy, I abhor the lack of reason.

The first condition of nonviolence is justice all round, in every department of life.

We all have a responsibility to create a just society

Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument.

This, and no other, is justice: — to consider, under all the circumstances and consequences of a particular case, how the greatest quantity and purest quality of happiness will ensue from any action ... there is no other justice.

There is no such thing as justice, all the best that we can hope for is revenge.