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
time men always-trying
Time is that which a man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him.
humanity progress use
Organs, faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them; grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that they will continue to do so. And if this inference is unquestionable, then is the one above deduced from it-that humanity must in the end become completely adapted to its conditions-unquestionable also. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
organization law function
A function to each organ, and each organ to its own function, is the law of all organization.
pain regulation way
Absolute morality is the regulation of conduct in such a way that pain shall not be inflicted.
animal special atoms
We must infer that a plant or animal of any species, is made up of special units, in all of which there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to aggregate into the form of that species: just as in the atoms of a salt, there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to crystallize in a particular way.
discipline littles may
A stern discipline pervades all nature, which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.
children parenting function
It is the function of parents to see that their children habitually experience the true consequences of their conduct.
giving-up religion dogma
Religion has been compelled by science to give up one after another of its dogmas. . . .
struggle race survival
This survival of the fittest which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called "natural selection", or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.
art musical welfare
Music ministers to human welfare more than any other art.
balance life-is life-balance
Life is not for learning nor is life for working, but learning and working are for life.
work-out perfect suffering
The forces which are working out the great scheme of perfect happiness, taking no account of incidental suffering, exterminate such sections of mankind as stand in their way, with the same sternness that they exterminate beasts of prey and herds of useless ruminants.
good-life healthy firsts
Of all the knowledge, that most worth having is knowledge about health! The first requisite of a good life is to be a healthy person.
running men vanity
Surely in much talk there cannot choose but be much vanity. Loquacity is the fistula of the mind,--ever-running and almost incurable, let every man, therefore, be a Phocion or Pythagorean, to speak briefly to the point or not at all; let him labor like them of Crete, to show more wit in his discourse than words, and not to pour out of his mouth a flood of the one, when he can hardly wring out of his brains a drop of the other.