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Quote by Herbert Spencer

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Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, sociologist, and writer, best known for his theory of social Darwinism. His ideas had a profound impact on social and political theories of the late 19th century. more

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“What is the use of this fuss about morality when the issue only involves a horse? The first and most difficult teaching of civilisation concerns man's behaviour to his inferiors. Make humanity gentle or reasonable toward animals, and strife or injustice between human beings would speedily terminate.”

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Book:The Illustrated Horse Management: Containing Descriptive Remarks Upon Anatomy, Medicine, Shoeing, Teeth, Food, Vices, Stables : Likewise a Plain Account of the Situation, Nature and Value of the Various Points : Together with Comments on Grooms, Dealers, Breeders, Breakers and Trainers : Also, on Carriages and Harness
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“Simplicity is a pleasant thing in children, or at any age, but it is not necessarily admirable, nor is affectation altogether a thing of evil. To be normal, to be at home in the world, with a prospect of power, usefulness, or success, the person must have that imaginative insight into other minds that underlies tact and savoir-faire, morality and beneficence. This insight involves sophistication, some understanding and sharing of the clandestine impulses of human nature. A simplicity that is merely the lack of this insight indicates a sort of defect.”

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Book:Two Major Works: Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order
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“So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. . . . When a man attempts to deal with me by force, I answer him by force. It is only as retaliation that force may be used and only against the man who starts its use. No, I do not share his evil or sink to his concept of morality: I merely grant him his choice, destruction, the only destruction he had the right to choose: his own.”

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Author:Ayn Rand
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“A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest - but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”

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Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“But neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive in any random manner, but will perish unless he lives as his nature requires, so he is free to seek his happiness in any mindless fraud, but the torture of frustration is all he will find, unless he seeks the happiness proper to man. The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”

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Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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