Avoidable Misery

Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship.  We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle -- the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative.

-- Sir Karl Popper (1902 - 1994), Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator, As quoted in 1,001 Pearls of Wisdom (2006) by David Ross