Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencerwas an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth27 April 1820
time men always-trying
Time is that which a man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him.
rights liberty libertarian
However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.
brain feds ill
Mental power cannot be got from ill-fed brains.
humanity progress use
Organs, faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them; grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that they will continue to do so. And if this inference is unquestionable, then is the one above deduced from it-that humanity must in the end become completely adapted to its conditions-unquestionable also. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
ethics existence solutions
Originally, ethics has no existence apart from religion, which holds it in solution.
dream ideas afterlife
There is no origin for the idea of an afterlife, save the conclusion which the savage draws from the notion suggested by dreams.
marriage gentleman noses
Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.
echoes soul hardship
Those whose hardships are set forth in pamphlets and proclaimed in sermons and speeches which echo throughout society, are assumed to be all worthy souls, grievously wronged; and none of them are thought of as bearing the penalties of their misdeeds.
queens men heaven
... those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded... Sad, indeed, is it to see how men occupy themselves with trivialities, and are indifferent to the grandest phenomena - care not to understand the architecture of the heavens, but are deeply interested in some contemptible controversy about the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots!
desire elements facts
An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature.
time fall flower
Noiseless falls the foot of time That only treads on flowers.
generosity envy mountain
There is a story of some mountains of salt in Cumana, which never diminished, though carried away in much abundance by merchants; but when once they were monopolized to the benefit of a private purse, then the salt decreased; till afterward all were allowed to take of it, when it had a new access and increase. The truth of this story may be uncertain, but the application is true; he that envies others the use of his gifts decays then, but he thrives most that is most diffusive.
marriage funny-marriage mirages
Marriage: A word which should be pronounced "mirage".
evil soul forget
We too often forget that not only is there 'a soul of goodness in things evil,' but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.