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Herbert Spencer Quotes


Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.

Herbert Spencer
Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

Herbert Spencer
Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

Herbert Spencer
Our lives are universally shortened by our ignorance.

Herbert Spencer
People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal.

Herbert Spencer
Science is organized knowledge.

Herbert Spencer
Society exists for the benefit of its members, not the members for the benefit of society.

Herbert Spencer
The behavior of men to the lower animals, and their behavior to each other, bear a constant relationship.

Herbert Spencer
The fact disclosed by a survey of the past that majorities have been wrong must not blind us to the complementary fact that majorities have usually not been entirely wrong.

Herbert Spencer
The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

Herbert Spencer
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.

Herbert Spencer
The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.

Herbert Spencer
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.

Herbert Spencer
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.

Herbert Spencer
The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.

Herbert Spencer
Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.

Herbert Spencer
Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious.

Herbert Spencer
We all decry prejudice, yet are all prejudiced.

Herbert Spencer
We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.

Herbert Spencer
What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man.

Herbert Spencer