Herbert Spencer – 22 Quotes

22 Quotes by Herbert Spencer

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

– 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

Education has for its object the formation of character.

– Herbert Spencer

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

– Herbert Spencer

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

– Herbert Spencer

We do not commonly see in a tax a diminution of freedom, and yet it clearly is one.

– Herbert Spencer

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

– Herbert Spencer

Government is essentially immoral.

– 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 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

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

– Herbert Spencer

The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality.

– Herbert Spencer

Science is organized knowledge.

– Herbert Spencer

When a man’s knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion.

– Herbert Spencer

Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.

– Herbert Spencer

Marriage: A word which should be pronounced ‘mirage’.

– 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

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

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

– Herbert Spencer

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

– Herbert Spencer

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

– Herbert Spencer