Full Idea
Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and science of music and poetry.
Gist of Idea
Prejudice apart, push-pin has equal value with music and poetry
Source
Jeremy Bentham (Constitutional Code I [1827], p.139), quoted by J.R. Dinwiddy - Bentham p.114
Book Reference
Dinwiddy,J.R.: 'Bentham' [OUP 1989], p.114
A Reaction
Mill quoted this with implied outrage, but Bentham was attacking public subsidies to the arts when he said it. It is a basic idea in the debate on pleasure - that pleasures are only distinguished by their intensity, not some other value.