Herbert Spencer Quotes

If insistence on them tends to unsettle established systems ... self-evident truths are by most people silently passed over; or else there is a tacit refusal to draw from them the most obvious inferences.

When a man’s knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has, the greater will be his confusion.

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.

It is provable both that the historical sequence was, in its main outlines, a necessary one; and that the causes which determined it apply to the child as to the race. ...as the mind of humanity placed in the midst of phenomena and striving to comprehend them has, after endless comparisons, speculations, experiments, and theories, reached its present knowledge of each subject by a specific route; it may rationally be inferred that the relationship between mind and phenomena is such as to prevent this knowledge from being reached by any other route; and that as each child's mind stands in this same relationship to phenomena, they can be accessible to it only through the same route. Hence in deciding upon the right method of education, an inquiry into the method of civilization will help to guide us.

Ethics has to recognize the truth, recognized in unethical thought, that egoism comes before altruism. The acts required for continued self-preservation, including the enjoyment of benefits achieved by such acts, are the first requisites to universal welfare. Unless each duly cares for himself, his care for all others is ended by death; and if each thus dies, there remain no others to be cared for.

Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all. Like the majority of men who are born to a given belief, they demand the most rigorous proof of any adverse belief, but assume that their own needs none.

The tyranny of Mrs. Grundy is worse than any other tyranny we suffer under.

Education has for its object the formation of character.

Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.

When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has, the greater is his confusion.

The belief in the innate virtues of constitutions is as baseless as was the belief in the natural superiorities of royal personages.

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.

There can be little question that good composition is far less dependent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagination, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making all rhetorical precepts needless.

Every pleasure raises the tide of life; every pain lowers the tide of life.

إن الأديان على قدر إختلافها فى عقائدها المعلنة,تتفق ضمنيا فى إيمانها بأن وجود الكون هو سر يتطلب التفسير