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 temptation age
No place, no company, no age, no person is temptation-free; let no man boast that he was never tempted, let him not be high-minded, but fear, for he may be surprised in that very instant wherein he boasteth that he was never tempted at all.
silly humor men
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.
life change moments
A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.
may sculpture architecture
Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry, may truly be called the efflorescence of civilised life.
evolution made evolve
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.
ideas atheism matter
The more specific idea of Evolution now reached is - a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.
selfish men law
What a cage is to the wild beast, law is to the selfish man.
fall self long
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.
science serious pursuit
Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.
desire elements facts
An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature.
change science ideas
In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.
love rewards wealth
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.
children trying world
Do not try to produce an ideal child, it would find no fitness in this world.
freedom taxes
We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.