Greatest happiness principle from "summary" of Utilitarianism and On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
The principle of 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. By happiness, is meant pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends; all other things being only desirable as means to these ends. The utilitarian doctrine is that happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end. What is meant by utility, is the greatest happiness principle, which defines the fundamental principle of morality. This principle holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. The principle of utility is not something to be contradistinguished from the principles of justice, or of any other virtue. It includes them all, and is the foundation of them all. It is the standard by reference to which we may judge whether any given action is righ...
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