Jeremy Bentham, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.1 They alone point out what we ought to do, as well as determine what we shall do; on the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne.2 Systems which attempt to question this subjection deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light.3
The principle built upon this foundation is the principle of utility — or, as I came to prefer, the greatest happiness principle: that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question, whether that party be a private individual or the whole community.4
By utility I mean that property in any object whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness — all of which, examined, come to the same thing — or to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness.5 Good is pleasure or exemption from pain; evil is pain or loss of pleasure.6 Every other moral term, subjected to paraphrasis — that is, resolved into its real constituents — will yield no other meaning than these.
Until the greatest happiness of the greatest number is, on each occasion, referred to as the source of all reasoning, and arithmetic employed in making application of it, everything that calls itself argument in the field of legislation will be, in no small proportion, a compound of nonsense and falsehood, with misrule for its effect.7
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 do.An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, p. 59
On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think.An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, p. 59
Systems which attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light.An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, p. 59
By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question... I say of every action whatsoever; and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government.An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, pp. 59–60
By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered.An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, pp. 59–60
Good is pleasure or exemption from pain: or a cause or instrument of either... Evil is pain or loss of pleasure; or a cause or instrument of either.Legislator of the World, Writings on Codification, Law, and Education, pp. 317–318
Till the principle of utility, as explained by the phrase the greatest happiness of the greatest number, is, on each occasion, if not explicitly, implicitly referred to, as the source of all reasoning... every thing that, in the field of legislation, calls itself reasoning or argument will... be a compound of nonsense and falsehood; both ingredients having misrule for their effect.Legislator of the World, Writings on Codification, Law, and Education, p. 317