The despotism of custom is on the wane. We are not content to know that things are; we ask whether they ought to be.

It is historically true that a large proportion of infidels in all ages have been persons of distinguished integrity and honor.

Trade is a social act. Whoever undertakes to sell any description of any goods to the public, does what affects the interest of other persons, and of society in general; and thus his conduct, in principal, comes within the jurisdiction of society.

Such are the differences among human beings in their sources of pleasure, their susceptibilities of pain, and the operation on them of different physical and moral agencies, that unless there is a corresponding diversity in their modes of life, they neither obtain their fair share of happiness, nor grow up to the mental, moral, and aesthetic stature of which their nature is capable.

Men do not desire to be rich, but to be richer than other men.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality