Source: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789; 1823), Ch. 1 : Of the Principle of Utility
“The rarest of all human qualities is consistency.”
Source: Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Chapter 1
Context: Not that there is or ever has been that human creature at breathing, however stupid or perverse, who has not on many, perhaps on most occasions of his life, deferred to it. By the natural constitution of the human frame, on most occasions of their lives men in general embrace this principle, without thinking of it: if not for the ordering of their own actions, yet for the trying of their own actions, as well as of those of other men. There have been, at the same time, not many perhaps, even of the most intelligent, who have been disposed to embrace it purely and without reserve. There are even few who have not taken some occasion or other to quarrel with it, either on account of their not understanding always how to apply it, or on account of some prejudice or other which they were afraid to examine into, or could not bear to part with. For such is the stuff that man is made of: in principle and in practice, in a right track and in a wrong one, the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.
Last update Oct. 1, 2023.
History
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "The rarest of all human qualities is consistency." by Jeremy Bentham?
Jeremy Bentham 30
British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer 1748–1832Related quotes
“Blood is a juice of rarest quality.”
Blut ist ein ganz besondrer Saft.
Variant translation: Blood is a very special juice.
Faust's Study
Faust, Part 1 (1808)
Benjamin Disraeli
(1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Cited in Gwendolen Cecil, Life of Robert Marquis of Salisbury: 1868-1880, Vol. 2. (1921), p. 205.
Sourced but undated
“One of the rarest and most prestigious qualities of a person is his transparency.”
Prevale
(1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: Una delle qualità più rare e prestigiose di una persona è la sua trasparenza.
Source: prevale.net
“True courage, in the face of almost certain death, is the rarest quality on earth.”
Christopher Pike
(1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden
Source: Black Blood
“Authenticity is the rarest and most important privilege that can belong to a human being.”
Prevale
(1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: L'autenticità è il privilegio più raro ed importante che possa appartenere ad un essere umano.
Source: prevale.net
Winston S. Churchill
(1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In Great Contemporaries, "Alfonso XIII" (1937).
The 1930s
Simone Weil
(1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist
"Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God"
Waiting on God (1950)
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
Aristotle
(-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy