Herbert Spencer Quotes

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• There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

  Herbert Spencer

  Wisdom, Ignorance, Science

  259 Copy quote

• The law is the survival of the fittest.... The law is not the survival of the 'better' or the 'stronger,' if we give to those words any thing like their ordinary meanings. It is the survival of those which are constitutionally fittest to thrive under the conditions in which they are placed; and very often that which, humanly speaking, is inferiority, causes the survival.

  Herbert Spencer

  Law, Giving, Survival

  "Mr. Martineau on Evolution" (1872) See Darwin 7; Philander Johnson 1; Herbert Spencer 5

  151 Copy quote

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

  Herbert Spencer

  Life, Inspiring, Wise

  Herbert Spencer (1865). “First Principles of a New System of Philosophy”, p.123

  126 Copy quote

• The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

  Herbert Spencer

  Inspirational, Education, Learning

  139 Copy quote

• The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society.

  Herbert Spencer

  Liberty, Benefits, Libertarian

  "The Principles of Sociology".

  117 Copy quote

• This survival of the fittest which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called "natural selection", or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.

  Herbert Spencer

  Life, Struggle, Race

  The Principles of Biology pt. 3, ch. 12 (1865) See Darwin 7; Philander Johnson 1; Herbert Spencer 6

  81 Copy quote

• What, then, do they want a government for? Not to regulate commerce; not to educate the people; not to teach religion, not to administer charity; not to make roads and railways; but simply to defend the natural rights of man -- to protect person and property -- to prevent the aggressions of the powerful upon the weak -- in a word, to administer justice. This is the natural, the original, office of a government. It was not intended to do less: it ought not to be allowed to do more.

  Herbert Spencer

  Powerful, Men, Rights

  Herbert Spencer (2016). “The Man versus the State: Great Essays”, p.125, VM eBooks

  14 Copy quote

• 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.

  Herbert Spencer

  Wise, Wisdom, Diversity

  'Social Statics' (1850) pt. 4, ch. 30, 16

  108 Copy quote

• The defects of the children mirror the defects of the parents.

  Herbert Spencer

  Children, Mirrors, Parent

  20 Copy quote

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

  Herbert Spencer

  Silly, Humor, Men

  'Essays' (1891) vol. 3 'State Tamperings with Money and Banks'

  20 Copy quote

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

  Herbert Spencer

  Feelings, Intuition, Determined

  'Social Statics' (1850) pt. 4, ch. 30, 8

  56 Copy quote

• All socialism involves slavery.

  Herbert Spencer

  Liberty, Slavery, Libertarian

  Herbert Spencer, John Offer (1994). “Spencer: Political Writings”, p.95, Cambridge University Press

  94 Copy quote

• We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time, there has been a ceaseless devouring of the weak by the strong.

  Herbert Spencer

  Strong, Past, Weak

  Herbert Spencer (1864). “The Principles of Biology”, p.340

  9 Copy quote

• Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity…It is a part of nature.

  Herbert Spencer

  Progress, Accidents

  'Social Statics' (1850) pt. 1, ch. 2, 4

  43 Copy quote

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

  Herbert Spencer

  Knowledge, Men, Order

  Herbert Spencer (1873). “The Study of Sociology”, p.242

  25 Copy quote

• The authoritarian sets up some book, or man, or tradition to establish the truth. The freethinker sets up reason and private judgment to discover the truth... It takes the highest courage to utter unpopular truths.

  Herbert Spencer

  Courage, Truth, Book

  19 Copy quote

• Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations.

  Herbert Spencer

  Life, Reality, Relation

  Herbert Spencer (2016). “The Principles of Ethics - Completed: Great Essays”, p.24, VM eBooks

  13 Copy quote

• Education has for its object the formation of character.

  Herbert Spencer

  Education, Teaching, Learning

  'Social Statics' (1850) pt. 2, ch. 17, 4

  14 Copy quote

• The tyrant is nothing but a slave turned inside out.

  Herbert Spencer

  Tyrants, Perspective, Slave

  Herbert Spencer (1873). “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.118

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Herbert Spencer

  Home, Civilization, Important

  11 Copy quote

• Marriage: A word which should be pronounced "mirage".

  Herbert Spencer

  Funny, Relationship, Marriage

  19 Copy quote

• Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.

  Herbert Spencer

  Hero, Political, Atheism

  Herbert Spencer (1873). “Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed”, p.461

  85 Copy quote

• Education is preparation to live completely.

  Herbert Spencer

  Education, Preparation

  52 Copy quote

• All socialism involves slavery. That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labours under coercion to satisfy anothers desires.

  Herbert Spencer

  Desire, Slavery, Coercion

  Herbert Spencer (2016). “The Man versus the State: Great Essays”, p.37, VM eBooks

  19 Copy quote

• Science is organized knowledge.

  Herbert Spencer

  Science, Management, Organized

  Education ch. 2 (1861)

  35 Copy quote

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