Francis Hutcheson

“Benevolence is the sole and universal motive to virtuous actions.”

“The end of all is the happiness of all.”

“That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers; and that, worst, which, in like manner, occasions misery.”

“The Author of Nature has determined us to receive, from the Objects which surround us, even prior to any reasoning upon our Choice, a great many different kinds of Pleasures and Pains.”

“Liberty can be nothing else but a power of acting, and of determining our actions.”

“There is a natural and immediate determination to approve certain affections, and actions consequent upon them... this determination we call a moral sense.”

“The diversity of the human species is no more than the different colours of a flower.”

“Beauty is unity in variety.”

“Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means.”

“No man can be happy, without an uninterupted enjoyment of life.”

“When we form notions of the beauty of actions, we have no other foundation for them, but this moral sense.”