Quotessence
Home / Authors / Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenMayScienceGovernmentIfsChildrenAtheismHumansLibertyStatesKindLawNaturalActionEvolutionFeelingsIdeasPositive AtheismShouldLibertarian

Famous Herbert Spencer Quotes

“Music may appeal to crude and coarse feelings or to refined and noble ones; and in so far as it does the latter it awakens the higher nature and works an effect, though but a transitory effect, of a beneficial kind. But the primary purpose of music is neither instruction nor culture but pleasure; and this is an all-sufficient purpose.”

KindMayDoeFeelingsPurposeCulturePleasureEffectsHigherMusic IsNoblePrimariesAppealsSufficientLatterInstructionBeneficialRefinedCrudeTransitoryCoarse
Book:Works
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“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
Create image

“The chief arguments that are urged against an established religion, may be used with equal force against an established charity. The dissenter submits, that no party has a right to compel him to contribute to the support of doctrines, which do not meet his approbation. The rate-payer may as reasonably argue, that no one is justified in forcing him to subscribe towards the maintenance of persons, whom he does not consider deserving of relief.”

MayPersonsDoePhilosophyPoliticalUsedForcePartySupportEqualEconomicsArgumentCharityRateArguingDoctrineChiefsReliefSubmitJustifiedDeservingMaintenance
Book:The Proper Sphere of Government: a Reprint of a Series of Letters, Originally Published in
Create image

“For what is meant by saying that a government ought to educate the people? Why should they be educated? What is the education for? Clearly, to fit the people for social life - to make them good citizens. And who is to say what are good citizens? The government: there is no other judge. And who is to say how these good citizens may be made? The government: there is no other judge. Hence the proposition is convertible into this - a government ought to mold children into good citizens, using its own discretion in settling what a good citizen is and how the child may be molded into one.”

PeopleShouldMayChildrenMadeGovernmentSocialJudgingOughtCitizensFitEducatedSettlingEducateCitizenshipPropositionsMoldDiscretionSocial LifeGood CitizenCompulsory Education
Author:Herbert Spencer
Create image

“Even the absurdest report may in nearly every instance be traced to an actual occurrence; and had there been no such actual occurrence, this preposterous misrepresentation of it would never have existed. Though the distorted or magnified image transmitted to us through the refracting medium of rumour, is utterly unlike the reality; yet in the absence of the reality there would have been no distorted or magnified image.”

MayHas BeensRealityAbsenceMediumsInstanceReportsRumorRumoursMisrepresentation
Book:First Principles
Create image