“He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.”

Speech to Germans at Cincinnati, Ohio (February 12, 1861); published in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) by Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 202<!-- New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press -->
The phrase "I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number." is allusion to British jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer Jeremy Bentham who wrote in his "Extracts from Bentham's Commonplace Book", in Collected Works, x, p. 142: "Priestley was the first (unless it was Beccaria) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth — that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
1860s
Context: I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the working men are the basis of all governments, for the plain reason that they are the most numerous, and as you added that those were the sentiments of the gentlemen present, representing not only the working class, but citizens of other callings than those of the mechanic, I am happy to concur with you in these sentiments, not only of the native born citizens, but also of the Germans and foreigners from other countries. Mr. Chairman, I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind; and therefore, without entering upon the details of the question, I will simply say, that I am for those means which will give the greatest good to the greatest number.

Quoted in: Giles Auty (1977) The Art of Self-Deception: An Intelligible Guide, p. 88
undated quotes

On Actors and the Art of Acting (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1875) p. 13

Olly Blackburn meets Nic Roeg, TimeOut London, Olly Blackburn, Time Out Group Ltd and Time Out Digital Ltd., 9 July 2008, 23 February 2012 http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/5148/olly-blackburn-meets-nic-roeg.html,

"Extracts from Bentham's Commonplace Book", in Collected Works, x, p. 142; He credits Priestley in his Essay on the First Principles of Government (1768) or Beccaria with inspiring his use of the phrase, often paraphrased as "The greatest good for the greatest number", but the statement "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" actually originates with Francis Hutcheson, in his Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil (1725), sect. 3. In an unpublished manuscript on utilitarianism, written for James Mill, he later criticized this formulation: "Greatest happiness of the greatest number. Some years have now elapsed since, upon a closer scrutiny, reason, altogether incontestable, was found for discarding this appendage. On the surface, additional clearness and correctness given to the idea: at bottom, the opposite qualities. Be the community in question what it may, divide it into two equal parts, call one of them the majority, the other minority, layout of the account of the feelings of the minority, include in the account no feelings but those in the majority, the result you will find is that of this operation, that to the aggregate stock of happiness of the community, loss not profit is the result of the operation. Of this proposition the truth will be the more palpable, the greater the ration of the number of the minority to that of the majority: in other words, the less difference between the two unequal parts: and suppose the condivident part equal, the quantity of the error will then be at its maximum." — as quoted in The Classical Utilitarians : Bentham and Mill (2003) by John Troyer, p. 92;

Essay Fourth, The Principles of the Former Essays Applied to Government
A New View of Society (1813-1816)

Source: Lord of the Flies

As quoted in Days with Bernard Shaw (1949) by Stephen Winsten
1940s and later

"History of My Life" Chapter 17
Referenced