Herbert Spencer quotes - page 2

Morality knows nothing of geographical boundaries, or distinctions of race. (Herbert Spencer)
Equity knows no difference of sex. In its vocabulary the word man must be understood in a generic, and not in a specific sense. View quote
Herbert Spencer
The saying that beauty is but skin deep, is but a skin-deep saying. View quote
Herbert Spencer
The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness. View quote
Herbert Spencer
A jury is a group of twelve people of average ignorance. View quote
Herbert Spencer
The essential trait in the moral consciousness, is the control of some feeling or feelings by some other feeling or feelings. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Unlike private enterprise which quickly modifies its actions to meet emergencies - unlike the shopkeeper who promptly finds the wherewith to satisfy a sudden demand - unlike the railway company which doubles its trains to carry a special influx of passengers; the law-made instrumentality lumbers on under all varieties of circumstances at its habitual rate. By its very nature it is fitted only for average requirements, and inevitably fails under unusual requirements. View quote
Herbert Spencer
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. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Under the natural course of things each citizen tends towards his fittest function. Those who are competent to the kind of work they undertake, succeed, and, in the average of cases, are advanced in proportion to their efficiency; while the incompetent, society soon finds out, ceases to employ, forces to try something easier, and eventually turns to use. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Evil perpetually tends to disappear. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Each new ontological theory, propounded in lieu of previous ones shown to be untenable, has been followed by a new criticism leading to a new scepticism. All possible conceptions have been one by one tried and found wanting; and so the entire field of speculation has been gradually exhausted without positive result: the only result reached being the negative one above stated, that the reality existing behind all appearances is, and must ever be, unknown. (Herbert Spencer)
The universal basis of co-operation is the proportioning of benefits received to services rendered. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Strong as it looks at the outset, State-agency perpetually disappoints every one. Puny as are its first stages, private efforts daily achieve results that astound the world. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Originally, ethics has no existence apart from religion, which holds it in solution. View quote
Herbert Spencer
We have repeatedly observed that while any whole is evolving, there is always going on an evolution of the parts into which it divides itself; but we have not observed that this equally holds of the totality of things, which is made up of parts within parts from the greatest down to the smallest. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Thus poetry, regarded as a vehicle of thought, is especially impressive partly because it obeys all the laws of effective speech, and partly because in so doing it imitates the natural utterances of excitement. View quote
Herbert Spencer
If a single cell, under appropriate conditions, becomes a man in the space of a few years, there can surely be no difficulty in understanding how, under appropriate conditions, a cell may, in the course of untold millions of years, give origin to the human race. View quote
Herbert Spencer
When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don't care if they are shot themselves. View quote
Herbert Spencer
We too often forget that not only is there "a soul of goodness in things evil," but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Life is the continuous adjustment of external relations. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity...It is a part of nature. (Herbert Spencer)
When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion. View quote
Herbert Spencer
A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Love is life's end, but never ending. Love is life's wealth, never spent, but ever spending. Love's life's reward, rewarded in rewarding. View quote
Herbert Spencer
Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom. View quote
Herbert Spencer