Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.

Herbert Spencer

Categorized in : Thinking Men Purpose

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation.

Herbert Spencer

ignorance wisdom science

The law is the survival of the fittest.... The law is not the survival of the 'better' or the 'stronger,' if we give to those words any thing like their ordinary meanings. It is the survival of those which are constitutionally fittest to thrive under the conditions in which they are placed; and very often that which, humanly speaking, is inferiority, causes the survival.

Herbert Spencer

survival law giving

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

Herbert Spencer

learning education inspirational

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.

Herbert Spencer

wise inspiring life

The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society.

Herbert Spencer

libertarian benefits liberty

No one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy.

Herbert Spencer

diversity wisdom wise

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.

Herbert Spencer

race struggle life

All socialism involves slavery.... That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another's desires. The relation admits of many gradations. Oppressive taxation is a form of slavery of the individual to the community as a whole. The essential question is -- How much is he compelled to labor for other benefit than his own, and how much can he labor for his own benefit?

Herbert Spencer

community responsibility desire

Mother, when your children are irritable, do not make them more so by scolding and fault-finding, but correct their irritability by good nature and mirthfulness. Irritability comes from errors in food, bad air, too little sleep, a necessity for change of scene and surroundings; from confinement in close rooms, and lack of sunshine.

Herbert Spencer

mother sleep children

The belief, not only of the socialist but of those so-called liberals who are diligently preparing the way for them is that by due skill an ill working humanity may be framed into well-working initiations. It is delusion. The defective natures of citizens will show themselves in bad acting of whatever social structure they are arranged into. There is no political alchemy by which you can get golden conduct out of laden instincts.

Herbert Spencer

political skills humanity

Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom.

Herbert Spencer

atheism political hero

Civilization is a progress from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity toward a definite, coherent heterogeneity.

Herbert Spencer

definite progress civilization

The most important attribute of man as a moral being is the faculty of self-control.

Herbert Spencer

self motivational men

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.

Herbert Spencer

powerful rights men

Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions.

Herbert Spencer

opinion truth lying

All socialism involves slavery.

Herbert Spencer

libertarian slavery liberty

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.

Herbert Spencer

humor silly men

How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.

Herbert Spencer

mislead misuse ideas

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

Herbert Spencer

intuition determined feelings

The pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness.

Herbert Spencer

individual-happiness limits firsts