Quote#Pain
It is an axiom that the more pleasure and the less pain there is in…
Quote byLewis Gompertz · 1783–1861
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Fragments in Defence of Animals, and Essays on Morals, Soul, and Future State (1852), Elucidations on Elements of Morality, p. 253.
English (original)
It is an axiom that the more pleasure and the less pain there is in the Universe, the better it is. If, then, a person suffer pain instead of pleasure, whether he be criminal or not, the pain will be increased and the pleasure decreased; and, as this disagrees with the axiom just cited, it is wrong.
— Lewis Gompertz
More from Lewis Gompertz
Axiom 5. That we should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
Axiom 8. That the importance of any action is measured by the degree of pleasure or pain that it causes or prevents.
[H]owever the state of man may be above that of other animals, if the superiority be owing to his being differently situated, we must not dazzle ourselves by gazing on the brilliancy of the situation, but learn how to estimate their true …
[T]his seems to be still the age of infancy, and baby-like do we cry. This is all made for me! The land and the ocean abound with myriads of animated beings of admirable construction only for me to play with, to torment, and to destroy. …
[W]e should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
First, how do you prove that mankind is invested with the right of killing them, and that brutes have been created for the purpose you assert them to be? Secondly, it is to be observed that the flesh of man himself possesses the same …