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Just as nobody pursues happiness in order to find anything other than happiness, so nobody strives to reduce pain to reduce anything other than pain. Pain is always at the end of the track: it is the ultimate and essential badness. 'Painful' and 'bad' are synonymous in the mind of the child and, at a basic level, in all our minds.

— Richard D. Ryder Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)

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More quotes by Richard D. Ryder

Our first moral concern should always be with the individual who is the maximum sufferer.

Painism: A Modern Morality (2001)

It is always wrong to cause pain to A merely in order to increase the pleasure of B.

Painism: A Modern Morality (2001)

Their experiences may be more simple than ours, but are they less intense? Perhaps a caterpillar’s primitive pain when squashed is greater than our more sophisticated sufferings.

Painism: A Modern Morality (2001)

We have an obligation to try to reduce the pains of others, wherever they are, and however the pains have been caused.

Painism: A Modern Morality (2001)

The implication of painism is that political policies should extend to individuals of all nations, races, and species on an 'equal pain equal treatment' basis.

Putting Morality Back Into Politics (2006)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard D. Ryder (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.