Herbert Spencer Quotes
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The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.
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No place, no company, no age, no person is temptation-free; let no man boast that he was never tempted, let him not be high-minded, but fear, for he may be surprised in that very instant wherein he boasteth that he was never tempted at all.
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If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then he is free to drop connection with the state-to relinquish its protection, and to refuse paying toward its support.
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This survival of the fittest implies multiplication of the fittest.
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Lusts are like agues; the fit is not always on, and yet the man is not rid of his disease; and some men's lusts, like some agues, have not such quick returns as others.
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All socialism involves slavery.
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Marriage: A word which should be pronounced "mirage".
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In assuming any office besides its essential one, the State begins to lose the power of fulfilling its essential one.
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Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity…It is a part of nature.
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Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.
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Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.
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If a single cell, under appropriate conditions, becomes a man in the space of a few years, there can surely be no difficulty in understanding how, under appropriate conditions, a cell may, in the course of untold millions of years, give origin to the human race.
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The defects of the children mirror the defects of the parents.
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Any piece of knowledge which the pupil has himself acquired- any problem which he has himself solved, becomes, by virtue of the conquest, much more thoroughly his than it could else be. The preliminary activity of mind which his success implies, the concentration of thought necessary to it, and the excitement consequent on his triumph, conspire to register the facts in his memory in a way that no mere information heard from a teacher, or read in a schoolbook, can be registered.
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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.
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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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Morality knows nothing of geographical boundaries, or distinctions of race.
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Religion is the recognition that all things are manifestations of a Power which transcends our knowledge.
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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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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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The tyrant is nothing but a slave turned inside out.
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Reading is seeing by proxy.
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Unlike private enterprise which quickly modifies its actions to meet emergencies - unlike the shopkeeper who promptly finds the wherewith to satisfy a sudden demand - unlike the railway company which doubles its trains to carry a special influx of passengers; the law-made instrumentality lumbers on under all varieties of circumstances at its habitual rate. By its very nature it is fitted only for average requirements, and inevitably fails under unusual requirements.
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A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance.