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
Herbert Spencer quotes about
nature thinking government
The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing.
ideas atheism matter
The more specific idea of Evolution now reached is - a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.
selfish men law
What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man.
prejudice racial-justice
We all decry prejudice, yet are all prejudiced.
civilization barbarism militarism
Whatever fosters militarism makes for barbarism; whatever fosters peace makes for civilization.
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.
firsts causes energy
The existence of a first cause of the universe is a necessity of thought ... Amid the mysteries which become more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one absolute certainty that we are over in the presence of an Infinite, Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.
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.
politics politician social
The question of questions for the politicians should ever be-What type of social structure am I tending to produce? But this is a question he never entertains.
individual-happiness limits firsts
The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness.
ethics existence solutions
Originally, ethics has no existence apart from religion, which holds it in solution.
results delinquency
Every unpunished delinquency has a family of delinquencies.