The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.
A Fragment on Government preface (1776). Bentham said that he derived this formula from either Joseph Priestley or Cesare Beccaria; Beccaria is the more likely. If Priestley was the source, then Bentham was paraphrasing him because the phrase is not found in Priestley's writings. See Beccaria 1; Hutcheson 1
