Herbert Spencer Quotes
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Each new ontological theory, propounded in lieu of previous ones shown to be untenable, has been followed by a new criticism leading to a new scepticism. All possible conceptions have been one by one tried and found wanting; and so the entire field of speculation has been gradually exhausted without positive result: the only result reached being the negative one above stated, that the reality existing behind all appearances is, and must ever be, unknown.
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Thus poetry, regarded as a vehicle of thought, is especially impressive partly because it obeys all the laws of effective speech, and partly because in so doing it imitates the natural utterances of excitement.
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The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society.
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Education has for its object the formation of character. To curb restive propensities, to awaken dormant sentiments, to strengthen the perceptions, and cultivate the tastes, to encourage this feeling and repress that, so as finally to develop the child into a man of well proportioned and harmonious nature, this is alike the aim of parent and teacher.
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If they are sufficiently complete to live, they do live, and it is well they should live. If they are not sufficiently complete to live, they die, and it is best they should die.
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Religion is the recognition that all things are manifestations of a Power which transcends our knowledge.
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We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time, there has been a ceaseless devouring of the weak by the strong.
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So far from science being irreligious, as many think, it is the neglect of science that is irreligious-it is the refusal to study the surrounding creation that is irreligious.
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The home is the most important factor in civilization, and that civilization is to be measured at different stages largely by the development in the home.
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To have a specific style is to be poor in speech.
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The white light of truth, in traversing the many sided transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry.
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Religion has been compelled by science to give up one after another of its dogmas. . . .
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We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.
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Every pleasure raises the tide of life; every pain lowers the tide of life.
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The idea of disembodied spirits is wholly unsupported by evidence, and I cannot accept it.
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A man's liberties are none the less aggressed upon because those who coerce him do so in the belief that he will be benefited.
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The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.
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Surely in much talk there cannot choose but be much vanity. Loquacity is the fistula of the mind,--ever-running and almost incurable, let every man, therefore, be a Phocion or Pythagorean, to speak briefly to the point or not at all; let him labor like them of Crete, to show more wit in his discourse than words, and not to pour out of his mouth a flood of the one, when he can hardly wring out of his brains a drop of the other.
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Under the natural course of things each citizen tends towards his fittest function. Those who are competent to the kind of work they undertake, succeed, and, in the average of cases, are advanced in proportion to their efficiency; while the incompetent, society soon finds out, ceases to employ, forces to try something easier, and eventually turns to use.
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To play billiards well was a sign of an ill-spent youth
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A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance.
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The ideal form for a poem, essay, or fiction, is that which the ideal writer would evolve spontaneously. One in whom the powers of expression fully responded to the state of feeling, would unconsciously use that variety in the mode of presenting his thoughts, which Art demands.
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All socialism involves slavery. That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labours under coercion to satisfy anothers desires.
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Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
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The greatest of all infidelities is the fear that the truth will be bad.
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The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
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The more numerous public instrumentalities become, the more is there generated in citizens the notion that everything is to be done for them, and nothing by them. Every generation is made less familiar with the attainment of desired ends by individual actions or private agencies; until, eventually, governmental agencies come to be thought of as the only available agencies.
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Feudalism, serfdom, slavery — all tyrannical institutions, are merely the most vigorous kinds of rule, springing out of, and necessary to, a bad state of man. The progress from these is in all cases the same — less government.
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No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.
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Courage is worthy of respect when displayed in the maintenance of legitimate claims and in the repelling of aggressions, bodily or other. Courage is worthy of yet higher respect when danger is faced in defence of claims common to self and others, as in resistance to invasion. Courage is worthy of the highest respect when risk to life or limb is dared in defence of others.
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