Top 5 Quotes & Sayings by Henry Sidgwick

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English philosopher Henry Sidgwick.
Last updated on November 8, 2024.
Henry Sidgwick

Henry Sidgwick was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. He was the Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1883 until his death, and is best known in philosophy for his utilitarian treatise The Methods of Ethics. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research and a member of the Metaphysical Society and promoted the higher education of women. His work in economics has also had a lasting influence. In 1875, with Millicent Garrett Fawcett, he co-founded Newnham College, a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was the second Cambridge college to admit women, after Girton College. In 1856, Sidgwick joined the Cambridge Apostles intellectual secret society.

Society is like a schoolmaster who estimates boys according to their conformity to a standard that is easiest for running a school. — © Henry Sidgwick
Society is like a schoolmaster who estimates boys according to their conformity to a standard that is easiest for running a school.
One has to kill a few of one’s natural selves to let the rest grow — a very painful slaughter of innocents.
I do not see why the axiom of Prudence should not be questioned, when it conflicts with present inclination, on a ground similar to that on which Egoists refuse to admit the axiom of Rational Benevolence. If the Utilitarian has to answer the question, 'Why should I sacrifice my own happiness for the greater happiness of another?' it must surely be admissible to ask the Egoist 'Why should I sacrifice a present pleasure for a greater one in the future? Why should I concern myself about my own future feelings any more than about the feelings of other persons?'
Reason shows me that if my happiness is desirable and good, the equal happiness of any other person must be equally desirable.
We think so because all other people think so; Or because-or because-after all, we do think so; Or because we were told so, and think we must think so; Or because we once thought so, and think we still think so; Or because, having thought so, we think we will think so.
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