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Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer Quotes

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Famous Herbert Spencer Quotes

“The primary use of knowledge is for such guidance of conduct under all circumstances as shall make living complete. All other uses of knowledge are secondary.”

UseCircumstancesPrimariesGuidanceUse Of Knowledge
Book:Herbert Spencer on the Americans and the Americans on Herbert Spencer, report of his interview, and of the proceedings at the farewell banquet of Nov. 9, 1882. [With] Appendix
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“As there must be moderation in other things, so there must be moderation in self-criticism. Perpetual contemplation of our own actions produces a morbid consciousness, quite unlike that normal consciousness accompanying right actions spontaneously done; and from a state of unstable equilibrium long maintained by effort, there is apt to be a fall towards stable equilibrium, in which the primitive nature reasserts itself. Retrogression rather than progression may hence result.”

MayLongSelfStatesDoneActionFallResultsEffortConsciousnessProduceNormalCriticismContemplationStablePerpetualPrimitiveModerationProgressionEquilibriumUnstableMorbidRight ActionSelf Criticism
Author:Herbert Spencer
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“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.”

PeopleMenWantPersonsGovernmentNaturalJusticePowerfulTeachRightsOughtProtectOfficeWeakOriginalsPropertyCharityEducateAggressionCommerceRailwayE CommerceNatural Rights
Book:The Man versus the State: Great Essays
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“There is a story of some mountains of salt in Cumana, which never diminished, though carried away in much abundance by merchants; but when once they were monopolized to the benefit of a private purse, then the salt decreased; till afterward all were allowed to take of it, when it had a new access and increase. The truth of this story may be uncertain, but the application is true; he that envies others the use of his gifts decays then, but he thrives most that is most diffusive.”

MayStoriesUseMountainBenefitsIncreaseEnvyAccessGenerosityAbundanceThriveApplicationSaltDecayUncertainPursesMerchantsCarried Away
Author:Herbert Spencer
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“If on one day we find the fast-spreading recognition of popular rights accompanied by a silent, growing perception of the rights of women, we also find it accompanied by a tendency towards a system of non-coercive education--that is, towards a practical illustration of the rights of children.”

IfsChildrenGrowingRightsOne DayPerceptionSilentPracticalsTendenciesRecognitionIllustration
Book:Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed
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“Mother, when your children are irritable, do not make them more so by scolding and fault-finding, but correct their irritability by good nature and mirthfulness. Irritability comes from errors in food, bad air, too little sleep, a necessity for change of scene and surroundings; from confinement in close rooms, and lack of sunshine.”

ChildrenLittlesMotherSleepRoomsAirSceneFindingsOur ChildrenErrorsFaultsYour ChildrenSunshineSurroundingsConfinementGood NatureScoldingFault Finding
Author:Herbert Spencer
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“The belief, not only of the socialist but of those so-called liberals who are diligently preparing the way for them is that by due skill an ill working humanity may be framed into well-working initiations. It is delusion. The defective natures of citizens will show themselves in bad acting of whatever social structure they are arranged into. There is no political alchemy by which you can get golden conduct out of laden instincts.”

WayWellsMayShowsPoliticalHumanityBeliefSocialActingCitizensSkillsStructureInstinctIllDuesGoldenDelusionSocialistPreparingAlchemyFramedInitiationDefectiveSocial StructureBad Acting
Author:Herbert Spencer
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“Conservatism defends those coercive arrangements which a still-lingering savageness makes requisite. Radicalism endeavours to realize a state more in harmony with the character of the ideal man.”

MenStillsStatesCharacterRealizingIdealsHarmonyArrangementsConservatismEndeavourLingeringRadicalismIdeal Man
Book:Social Statics: Or, the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed
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“It is a mistake to assume that government must necessarily last forever. The institution marks a certain stage of civilization-is natural to a particular phase of human development. It is not essential, but incidental. As amongst the Bushmen we find a state antecedent to government, so may there be one in which it shall have become extinct.”

HumansMayStatesGovernmentLastsCertainNaturalMistakeForeverStageParticularDevelopmentCivilizationEssentialsMarkInstitutionsAssumingPhasesHuman DevelopmentBushmen
Book:Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed
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“Practical atheism, seeing no guidance for human affairs but its own limited foresight, endeavors itself to play the god, and decide what will be good for mankind and what bad.”

HumansPlaySeeingAtheismMankindAffairBe GoodPracticalsGuidanceEndeavorForesight
Book:Social Statics; Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, & the First of Them Developed
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“The more numerous public instrumentalities become, the more is there generated in citizens the notion that everything is to be done for them, and nothing by them. Every generation is made less familiar with the attainment of desired ends by individual actions or private agencies; until, eventually, governmental agencies come to be thought of as the only available agencies.”

MadeEndsDoneActionIndividualGenerationsCitizensNotionAvailableFamiliarAgencyAttainment
Book:Spencer: Political Writings
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“... those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded... 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!”

KnowsMenCareHeavenArchitecturePursuitQueensMaryIndifferentIntrigueControversyScotsTrivialityTithe
Book:Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical
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