Quotes About Utility

Pleasures are all alike simply considered in themselves: he that hunts, or he that governs the commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit.

The utilitarian morality does recognise in human beings the power of sacrificing their own greatest good for the good of others. It only refuses to admit that the sacrifice is itself a good. A sacrifice which does not increase, or tend to increase, the sum total of happiness, it considers as wasted.

Again, defenders of utility often find themselves called upon to reply to such objections as this—that there is not time, previous to action, for calculating and weighing the effects of any line of conduct on the general happiness. This is exactly as if any one were to say that it is impossible to guide our conduct by Christianity, because there is not time, on every occasion on which anything has to be done, to read through the Old and New Testaments.

imputation; for if the sources of pleasure were precisely the same to human beings and to swine, the

A utilitarian who believes in the perfect goodness and wisdom of God, necessarily believes that whatever God has thought fit to reveal on the subject of morals, must fulfil the requirements of utility in a supreme degree.

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

Yes, but what is it good for? What does it mean?" Her look was full of pity. "If you have to ask that question, you wouldn't understand the answer.

A large part of mathematics which becomes useful developed with absolutely no desire to be useful, and in a situation where nobody could possibly know in what area it would become useful; and there were no general indications that it ever would be so.

Though all things in society as well as in the universe are said to have a purpose, there do exist here below certain beings whose purpose and utility seem inexplicable.

The utility of perseverance in absurdity is more than I could ever discern. Edmund Burke

The way that the meal or the music or the movie makes you feel in the moment—either good or bad—could be called experienced utility.

Things are not more or less perfect, according as they delight or offend human senses, or according as they are serviceable or repugnant to mankind.

Hardware works best when it matters the least.

Well-building hat three conditions. Commodity, firmness, and delight.

Do you know what kills me? The cropped hats. The beanies that are rolled up past your ears, in the summer as well! There's no function to it.

The utilitarian person, for whom rationality is economic rationality (i.e. the maximization of utility), does not exist. Real human beings are not, for the most part, in conscious control of, or even consciously aware of, their reasoning. Most of their reason, besides, is based on various kinds of prototypes, framings, and metaphors. People seldom engage in a form of economic reason that could maximize utility.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

I love Ikea: it's non-design, but it works.

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

The Appeal of Utilitarianism

When's the last time you used duct tape on a duct?

I rarely buy a shoe that is completely specific to a time and outfit. I generally tend to spend money on good shoes that can go with everything.

A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thing book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.

I like a thin book because it will steady a table, a leather volume because it will strop a razor and a heavy book because it can be thrown at a cat.