Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencerwas an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth27 April 1820
men soul atheism
The cruelty of a Fijian god, who, represented as devouring the souls of the dead, may be supposed to inflict torture during the process, is small compared with the cruelty of a God who condemns men to tortures which are eternal.
law practice clear-head
There can be little question that good composition is far less dependent upon acquaintance with its laws, than upon practice and natural aptitude. A clear head, a quick imagination, and a sensitive ear, will go far towards making all rhetorical precepts needless.
feelings essentials moral
The essential trait in the moral consciousness, is the control of some feeling or feelings by some other feeling or feelings.
moral restriction higher
With a higher moral nature will come a restriction on the multiplication of the inferior.
powerful men rights
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.
individual-happiness limits firsts
The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness.
results delinquency
Every unpunished delinquency has a family of delinquencies.
evil disappear
Evil perpetually tends to disappear.
No one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.
rights liberty libertarian
However insignificant the minority, and however trifling the proposed trespass against their rights, no such trespass is permissible.
strong past weak
We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time, there has been a ceaseless devouring of the weak by the strong.
law speech utterance
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.
average law special
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.
benefits operations bases
The universal basis of co-operation is the proportioning of benefits received to services rendered.