Herbert Spencer Quotes

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Herbert Spencer

Profession : Philosopher

Birth : April 27, 1820

A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance.

Herbert Spencer

A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.

Herbert Spencer

Society exists for the benefit of its members, not the members for the benefit of society.

Herbert Spencer

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

Herbert Spencer

Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious.

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.

Herbert Spencer

The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing.

Herbert Spencer

Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts - as the one which, more than any other, ministers to the human spirit.

Herbert Spencer

The behavior of men to the lower animals, and their behavior to each other, bear a constant relationship.

Herbert Spencer

In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances.

Herbert Spencer

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

Herbert Spencer

Our lives are universally shortened by our ignorance.

Herbert Spencer

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

Herbert Spencer

The fact disclosed by a survey of the past that majorities have been wrong must not blind us to the complementary fact that majorities have usually not been entirely wrong.

Herbert Spencer

People are beginning to see that the first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal.

Herbert Spencer

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.

Herbert Spencer

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.

Herbert Spencer

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.

Herbert Spencer

Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.

Herbert Spencer