Herbert Spencer Quotes

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Pervading all nature we may see at work a stern discipline, which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.

Herbert Spencer
No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by translation into words.

Herbert Spencer
We conclude, then, that for discipline, as well as for guidance, science is of chiefest value. In all its effects, learning the meanings of things, is better than learning the meanings of words. Whether for intellectual, moral, or religious training, the study of surrounding phenomena is immensely superior to the study of grammars and lexicons.

Herbert Spencer
Be there be or be there not any other revelation, we have a veritable revelation in Science - a continuous disclosure, through the intelligence with which we are endowed, of the established order of the Universe.

Herbert Spencer
The freest form of government is only the least objectionable form. The rule of the many by the few we call tyranny: the rule of the few by the many is tyranny also; only of a less intense kind.

Herbert Spencer
Sundry manifestations of nature in men and women, are greatly perverted by existing social conventions upheld by both. There are feelings which, under our predatory régime, with its adapted standard of propriety, it is not considered manly to show; but which, contrariwise, are considered admirable in women. Hence repressed manifestations in the one case, and exaggerated manifestations in the other; leading to mistaken estimates.

Herbert Spencer
The genuine man of science, we say, can truly know how utterly beyond, not only human knowledge, but human conception, is the Universal Power of which Nature, and Life, and Thought are manifestations. Education

Herbert Spencer
Science is necessary not only for the most successful production, but also for the full appreciation of the fine arts.

Herbert Spencer
To suppose that deciding whether a Mathematical or a Classical Education is the best, is deciding what is the proper curriculum, is much the same thing as to suppose that the whole of dietetics lies in ascertaining whether or not bread is more nutritive than potatoes!

Herbert Spencer
A higher knowledge tends continually to limit our interference with the processes of life.

Herbert Spencer
When made by a competent reader, an objection usually implies one of two things. Either the statement to which he demurs is wholly or partially untrue; or, if true, it is presented in such a way as to permit misapprehensions.

Herbert Spencer
Evolution is a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity, to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; through continuous differentiations and integrations.

Herbert Spencer
Without painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and the emotions produced by natural beauty of every kind, life would lose half its charm.

Herbert Spencer
Inquiring into the pedigree of an idea is not a bad means of roughly estimating its value. To have come of respectable ancestry, is primâ facie evidence of worth in a belief as in a person; while to be descended from a discreditable stock is, in the one case as in the other, an unfavorable index.

Herbert Spencer
What is Science? To see the absurdity of the prejudice against it, we need only remark that Science is simply a higher development of common knowledge; and that if Science is repudiated, all knowledge must be repudiated along with it.

Herbert Spencer
Feudalism, serfdom, slavery, all tyrannical institutions, are merely the most vigorous kind to rule, springing out of, and necessarily to, a bad state of man. The progress from these is the same in all cases - less government.

Herbert Spencer
Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, it is unquestionably true that Government is begotten of aggression, and by aggression.

Herbert Spencer
Progress is not an accident, not a thing within human control, but a beneficent necessity... due to the working of a universal law. So surely must the things we call evil and immorality disappear; so surely must man become perfect.

Herbert Spencer
Aggression which is flagitious when committed by one, is not sanctioned when committed by a host.

Herbert Spencer
No philosopher's stone of a constitution can produce golden conduct from leaden instincts.

Herbert Spencer
The white light of truth, in traversing the many sided transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry.

Herbert Spencer
He who contemplates the Universe from the religious point of view, must learn to see that this which we call Science is one constituent of the great whole; and as such ought to be regarded with a sentiment like that which the remainder excites.

Herbert Spencer
The conceptions which developing science gives of the grandeur of creation, as well as the constancy and irresistibleness of its Omnipresent Cause, make all feel the comparative littleness of human power...

Herbert Spencer
Thus to the question with which we set out - What knowledge is of most worth? - the uniform reply is - Science.

Herbert Spencer
With a perfect economy, Nature turns all forces to account.

Herbert Spencer
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!

Herbert Spencer
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.

Herbert Spencer
Whoever at the seaside has not had a microscope and aquariam, has yet to learn what the highest pleasures of the seaside are.

Herbert Spencer
Either unknowingly or in spite of themselves, Nature leads men by purely personal motives to fulfil her ends: Nature being one of our expressions for the Ultimate Cause of things, and the end, remote when not proximate, being the highest form of human life.

Herbert Spencer
We hear a great deal about "the vile body;" and many are encouraged by the phrase to transgress the laws of health. But Nature quietly suppresses those who treat thus disrespectfully one of her highest products, and leaves the world to be peopled by the descendants of those who are not so foolish.

Herbert Spencer